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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PEOPLE AND PREACHERS 



IN THE 



Methodist Episcopal Church 



BY 

A LAYMAN 



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PHILADELPHIA 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1886 



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Copyright, 1885, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 




PEEFAOE. 



The best argument in defence of the propriety of 
the following pages is to be found in the importance of 
the questions discussed therein. 

It was thought that an analysis of the polity of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church would show that, with 
the lapse of time and the presence of new conditions, 
some of the leading provisions of its organization 
could be profitably changed and others enlarged to 
secure the more complete and successful use of the 
piety, talents, gracious gifts, and the means of the 
whole membership of the church; that as Christ has 
opened to the church more fields of usefulness at home 
and abroad, it becomes its duty to so adjust its forces 
that it may meet its increased responsibilities and do 
the best work for His cause ; that as the work of man 
increases in importance and breadth with his age, so 
the Methodist Episcopal Church has grown, developed, 
and has now acquired all the powers that give a church 
efficiency. It has passed its formative state and needs 
to enter on its life of manhood ; it must strengthen 



4 PREFACE. 

every musc'e by exercise, employ all the arts that will 
develop its body and brain ; must be clothed with the 
garments of righteousness, and do valiant work for the 
Master. 

To do its full duty it is necessary that such alteration 
shall be made in its organization that the burdens may 
not be unequally borne, that each member shall con- 
tribute of his strength, so that the highest and best 
product of the united efforts of the ministry and laity 
shall be secured as the result. 

To do this effectively all questions of class, caste, 
and rank must be thrown aside. The principle of 
leadership in the Christian Church is consistent with 
the equality of believers. 

It was also thought that some such paper was desira- 
ble in order to call the attention of the laity to the con- 
nection of the proposed changes in the polity of the 
church with the question of lay representation, and to 
prepare the minds of the ministry and laity for definite 
and favorable legislation by the General Conference of 
1888. 

The world's history will have to be rewritten if it 
does not point to the end of the anomalous and incon- 
gruous connection between the power of the ministry 
and the obedient place of the laity in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church on the one hand, and the democratic 
government of Christ, the head of the church, and the 



PREFACE. 5 

equality of " the believers" on the other. It cannot 
be that in this country Protestants can continue to 
sustain an organization that so ignores its member- 
ship that not one lay member out of nearly two 
millions has the right or power in him or herself to 
vote on or to influence the polity or the administra- 
tion of the church. 

An objection will be made to the exposition of the 
dangers that threaten Methodism, on the ground that 
only the weak and vulnerable places have been ex- 
posed, while the strong points in the polity and work- 
ings of the church have not been fully set forth. If 
the objection is valid as to the latter part, then, once for 
all, let it be said that it has been held in view at every 
proper time to exalt the church, its ministry, and its 
laity as a whole, and to give it the fullest credit for 
what it has accomplished for the cause of Jesus Christ. 
That the church has done all that it might and should 
have done will be claimed by no one ; that it would 
have done more if a more intelligent and unselfish 
spirit had been displayed by the ministry in the past is 
the belief of many of its most devoted members in the 
clerical and lay ranks. The strong points will take 
care of themselves; the danger is in the imprudent 
neglect of the weak points. 

The object of this paper was not to praise the church, 
but to make suggestions whereby its usefulness could 



6 PREFACE. 

be increased, to give warning of present and approach- 
ing dangers, and to point out the way of safety. 

Another thought will occasion an expression of 
regret in the heart of every true lover of the church, 
which is, that the General Conference in May, 1884, 
failed to appreciate the grandeur, the nobility, and the 
propriety there would have been in that centennial 
year in proclaiming liberty to its people, that in after- 
ages they might have had their jubilee, their day of 
deliverance to celebrate. Are the laity of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church inferior in their natural and 
scriptural rights to the Jews, to the slaves of Rome, 
to the serfs of Eussia, of England, and of France, or 
to the slaves of Hayti and of these United States ? 

This question the ministry must answer, for they 
hold the keys which will loosen the shackles ; the day 
of deliverance has been put off, but it must and will 
come. 

The forbearance and patience of the laity have been 
sadly tried by the loss of the opportunity that such de- 
liverance from ministerial control would have afforded 
them, to erect monuments of their giving in all parts 
of the country, for all the interests of the church. 
It requires the courage of a self-assumed superiority 
now to ask such contributions from a people whose 
dearest rights were denied them by the General Con- 
ference of 1884, and who are not considered worthy or 



PREFACE. 7 

competent to control the use of the contributions they 
are asked to make. 

Finally, the reader will frequently meet in these 
pages a repetition of the same thought, argument, and 
perhaps, illustration : this the writer has not been care- 
ful to avoid ; and while such repetition may be consid- 
ered as in bad taste, yet it may be productive of better 
resuks by the impression made. 

For the views here expressed the writer is alone 
responsible. They may or may not meet the appro- 
bation of many of the laity or of many of the min- 
istry. The writer is willing to abide the results of 
four years more of thorough investigation of the 
subject. 

JOHN A. WEIGHT. 

Philadelphia, 1885. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 13 

CHAPTER I. 

The Rise of Methodism, its Relation to other 

Churches, and the Causes of its Success .... 17 

The growth of the Christian Church 19 

Its form of government 25 

Causes of growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church . . 26 

Growth of ministerial power therein 30 

CHAPTER II. 

The Defects in the Organization and in the Repre- 
sentative Bodies of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, the Dangers arising therefrom to the 

Ministry and to the Membership 37 

Equality of believers, proper basis of church government . 39 

Dangers to the church 47 

First. To its inner life : 47 

Second. From its organization 51 

The constitution of the legislative and executive bodies or 

councils of the church and their practical working . . 54 

I. The General Conference 54 

Its construction 54 

Basis of representation 59 

(Ecumenical Methodism 68 

Who should be members 72 

Clerical members 73 

Lay members 83 

Division of Conference into two bodies 85 

9 



10 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

To meet every six years 88 

As a deliberative body 88 

The selection and election of officials 93 

Changes suggested . . " 97 

II. The Annual Conference . . 99 

Its construction 99 

Who should be members 103 

Lay representation 106 

The " Restrictive Rules" 118 

Changes suggested 122 

Incorporation of Annual Conferences 122 

III. The Quarterly Conference 128 

Its construction 128 

Changes suggested 130 

Lay conventions 135 

Local preachers and exhorters 136 

CHAPTER III. 

The Defects and Dangers arising erom the Consti- 
tution AND FORM OF MANAGEMENT OF THE CHARI- 
TABLE Work of the Church and its Publishing 

Interests 141 

1. The official charitable work of the church 141 

Changes made by Act of General Conference of 1872 

considered 142 

Defects and dangers 146 

Changes suggested 152 

2. The publishing interests 155 

Their use 158 

Religious newspapers 167 

Quarterly Review 177 

Defects and dangers 180 

CHAPTER IY. 

The Injury that will Result to the Church from 
Temptations to which the Ministry are sub- 
jected, which, while Personal, yet have an 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

Influence on the Church, and also from the 
Tendency to eorm Alliances for Securing In- 
fluence and Control for their Benefit as a 

Class or Party 184 

1. The ministry as a class or party 184 

2. Political temptations and loss of aggressiveness . . 185 

3. Unacceptable ministers 187 

4. Secularization of the ministry 100 

5. Methods of securing power through alliances of the 

ministry as a class 199 

a. By exclusion of laymen from church councils . . 201 

b. By attack on the power and influence of the bishops 203 

c. By use of the Annual Conference 217 

d. Through the system of transfers 219 

e. Through the presiding eldership 225 

/. Through the term of service 231 

6. Colored statements 253 

7. Power over the purse 254 

8. By undue influence 255 

9. Conference aid societies 257 

10. Endowments 259 



CHAPTEK V. 

The Dangers that threaten the Peace, Purity, and 
Prosperity of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
from the Abuse of the Bepresentative Power 

held by the colored conferences 262 

The remedy 269 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Influence of a thorough Introduction of the 
Laity in every Department of Church Legisla- 
tion and Work, on its Prosperity and Useful- 
ness, on the Piety, Effectiveness, and Comfort 
of the Ministry, and on the Piety and Useful- 
ness of the Laity 271 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Division of labor and its results 274 

Woman's foreign Missionary Society 280 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Position of the Clerical and Lay Members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church on the Ques- 
tion of increased Lay Representation ...... 287 

Of the ministry 288 

Of the laity 290 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Laws of other Churches on Lay Representa- 
tion 293 

Deductions therefrom 293 

Memorandum of laws 295 

CHAPTER IX. 

Resume of the Changes that are required in the 
Organization and Polity of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church to suit the Present Conditions 

that surround and affect its usefulness . . . 300 

Basis of argument and fundamental principles 301 

Proposed changes in the General Conference 303 

Proposed changes in the Annual Conference 305 

Proposed change as to " Restrictive Rules" 306 

Proposed changes in the Quarterly Conference 306 

Proposed changes in the General Conference Board and 

Societies 306 

Proposed changes in the publishing interests 307 

The colored and mixed Conferences 307 

Harmony 309 

How to secure the proposed changes 312 



INTBODTTCTIOE". 



Methodism is now an acknowledged power in 
Christendom. The Wesleyan Church and the Meth- 
odist Churches of the United States and of Canada 
have secured this position of influence, by the grace of 
God, through the employment of certain means, coupled 
with a singular simplicity and purity in doctrine. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church of this country, 
as one branch of Methodism, has developed into the 
largest of the family in numbers, in wealth, and prob- 
ably in influence. The growth of Episcopal Method- 
ism is among the remarkable facts in church history. 
It is the more remarkable in that its organization was 
an original conception, unlike anything in the history 
of church or of state. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has won its way 
so well and so rapidly because it has been a power for 
good. Its teachings and many of its peculiarities have 
been approved by thousands, indeed by millions, of 
people who have been and are yet in its fold; its in- 
fluence has reached other Christian bodies and has 
modified their doctrines and customs. To study the 
inner life of such a body, to learn wherein lies its pe- 
culiar adaptation to the wants of man's nature, and the 
dangers that may lurk about its system, is a proper 

2 13 



1 ]. INTROD UCTION. 

business for every one in any way interested in the 
progress of Christ's cause. No harm can come to such 
an organization without affecting all the churches, while 
its progress, growth, and increased usefulness will help 
and aid other churches in their work. 

"With the desire to impartially study the polity of 
the Methodist. Episcopal Church, in relation to its 
present wants and its future usefulness, an effort will 
be made — 

First : To establish the proper basis on which church 
organizations should be built and the scriptural relations 
of all parties to such church. 

Second : To examine the organization of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church and the causes of its success. 

Third : To show the dangers to which the Methodist 
Episcopal Church is now exposed. 1st. From changes 
in its inner life; 2d. From its organization; and, 3d. 
From the influence of the ministers as a class and as 
individuals. 

Fourth : To suggest changes in its organization 

OS & & 

whereby, through the introduction of lay representa- 
tives in all its councils and by certain other modifica- 
tions of its laws, these dangers may be lessened and the 
church be made more useful and efficient. 

Fifth : To show how and wherein such changes in 
the organization would tend to increase the piety and 
usefulness both of the ministry and membership. 

These propositions may be considered under the fol- 
lowing headings : 

First : The rise of Methodism, its relation to other 
churches, and the causes of its success. 



IN TR OD UCTION. \ 5 

Second : The defects in the organization and in 
the representative bodies of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and the dangers arising therefrom to the church 
as a body, to the ministry, and to the membership. 

Third : The defects and dangers arising from the 
constitution and form of management of the charitable 
work of the church and of its publishing interests. 

Fourth : The injury that may result to the church 
from temptations to which the ministry are subjected 
(which, while personal, yet have an influence on the 
church), and also from the tendency to form alliances 
for securing influence and control in the church for 
their benefit as a class or party. 

Fifth : The dangers that threaten the peace, purity, 
and prosperity of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
from an abuse of the representative power held by the 
colored Conferences. 

Sixth : The influence of a thorough introduction 
of the laity in every department of church legislation 
and work ou its prosperity and usefulness, on the piety, 
effectiveness, and comfort of the ministry, and on the 
piety and usefulness of the laity. 

Seventh : The position of the clerical aud lay mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the ques- 
tion of increased lay representation. 

Eighth : The laws of other churches on lay repre- 
sentation. 

Ninth : Resume of the changes that are required in 
the organization and polity of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church to suit the present conditions that surround it 
and affect its usefulness. 



PEOPLE AND PREACHERS 

IN THE 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

The rise of Methodism, its relation to other churches, and the 
causes of its success. 

The object of religious teaching is to gain access to 
man's spiritual nature that it may receive the training, 
development, and preparation which are required to se- 
cure, through His Son Jesus Christ, the fulfilment of 
the promises of the Father in this life and in the life 
to come. 

The inducements that Christianity offers to man of 
improved health of body, of increased power of thought, 
of comprehension or grasp of mind, of a clean heart 
of an enlightened conscience, of a purer life, of better 
relations with his fellow-men and a proper relation 
with God the Father, of Divine guidance, of support 
in trials, of a deeply-grounded peace, with the promise 
of perfect happiness in the future life, demand and 
should receive the most profound consideration of 
every intelligent being. 

b 2* 17 



18 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

The measures by which these promises of God, the 
Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, can be best 
brought to man are only second in importance to the 
fact of the promises. These promises, these teachings, 
affect man most nearly, for they define the laws that 
control the condition of his existence here and here- 
after. To make these promises practical in the life of 
man, through them to bring men together and unite 
them in one bond and for one purpose, — their salva- 
tion and the glory of God, — to adopt measures for 
their promulgation among all peoples, embrace the 
leading duties of the church. 

The tracing of the nature, character, and object of 
these teachings as they were first delivered to man, in 
the fact of his existence (being born with him), then the 
verbal communication between man and his Creator, 
by being brought face to face with God Himself or 
with His angels, and then as they came to man through 
His prophets, and lastly by His Son Jesus Christ, must 
impress on the student the conviction that there has 
been a constant development and unfolding of the 
Divine thought and plans toward man from the time 
of his creation. 

The changes that have come during the past nearly 
nineteen hundred years in the teachings of the church 
established by Jesus Christ have been characterized by 
a law of development in the unfolding of great truths. 

The simplicity of the teachings of Jesus Christ, of 
the methods adopted by Him for the extension of His 
kingdom, His failure to establish a church that should 
rival in its ceremonies the Jewish, which was to be put 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 19 

away, could scarcely be comprehended or appreciated 
by His disciples and followers; and while the truths 
the teachings contain are the same to-day as when de- 
livered to man, yet they have in the time that has 
passed undergone many different interpretations. Yet 
it may be accepted that certain truths, or certain aspects 
of them, have been suited to man's condition at the 
time when they were prominent and had influence on 
his life. The natural tendency of the mind of man 
would be to take hold of such truths, or such aspects 
of them, as for the time seemed most important to his 
moral and spiritual welfare. 

These have been given to man as he has developed the 
ability and intelligence to appreciate and accept them, 
and just as rapidly as they became necessary to the growth 
and development of his mental and moral nature. 

The forms of worship and of the government of 
the church have been subject to many changes. The 
simple preaching of the gospel by Jesus Christ, by His 
disciples and apostles, soon degenerated into a seeking 
after the forms of the Jewish worship. Even the 
Apostles James and Peter looked upon the Church of 
Christ as but a modification of the old church in which 
they and their fathers had been reared. They could 
not with Paul and John cut loose from the ritual ser- 
vices of the temple ; they could not readily understand 
the perfect liberty to which the disciples of Christ were 
called. Many Jewish Christians could not believe that 
Jesus Christ had come into the world to establish a 
new church ; that while His teachings embodied all of 
the natural religion given to man, yet that in those 



20 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

teachings there was a new inspiration ; that on His life 
and death was to be founded a new church, of which 
He was to be the corner-stone. The original simplicity 
of service and worship was not consonant with the 
character of man, and to it by degrees were added some 
of the Jewish ceremonies and Pagan rites of Rome 
and Greece. Man soon saw that there were elements of 
power and honor in the young church, and from many 
good intentions there developed the Roman Church as 
a spiritual power, and after a short time as a political 
power. The history of this church has been thoroughly 
written. The progress of man and the history of the 
Roman Church cannot be separated ; it has lasted 
through all these centuries, and while its political in- 
fluence has been lessened, yet it is a power to-day both 
spiritually and politically. To deny that it has, amidst 
all its errors, done much for man would be to deny his 
progress. For while much has been due to more recent 
protesting churches, yet when there was no other church 
during the time of the great invasions from the North, 
while governments were uprooted and Europe was in 
continual warfare, in spite of wicked popes, a debauched 
ministry, and a degenerate and deceived people, the 
Roman Church kept in its bosom the gospel of Christ, 
to be delivered to peoples in after- times who could sep- 
arate the gold from its dross. 

WyclifFe, Huss, Luther, Erasmus, Zwingle, and Cal- 
vin are illustrious among these religious alchemists, and 
while the separation was not perfect, yet in the formation 
of the Reformed Churches as a resultant of many years 
of struggle, such separation was well nigh complete. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 21 

But even then the same difficulties arose as in the 
time of the Apostles, and the result was the loss of the 
simplicity of the Reformed Church, — on the one side 
hankering after the forms, traditions, power, and loaves 
and fishes of the Roman Church, resulting in the for- 
mation of the Church of England, and on the other 
by the abandonment of the teachings of Christ as un- 
derstood by Paul and John and running off into Cal- 
vinism with its doctrines so totally averse to the loving, 
tender, brotherly feeling and sympathies of Jesus Christ, 
thereby creating a church of stern, rigid doctrinaires, 
though with many characteristics that were commend- 
able and worthy of imitation. The results of this di- 
vision, or rather this breaking up of the Reformed 
Church, are plainly marked in the annals of the Eng- 
lish and of the Scotch Churches, and in the moral 
character of the people. In due time, when man's 
necessity was the greatest, God sent that great teacher, 
John Wesley, into the world, and endowed him not 
only with the qualities of a teacher, but of a leader 
of men and a great organizer of the forces at his com- 
mand. His education was solid, his acquirements large 
and varied, his heart and mind were honest, his pur- 
pose was single; and as the truth of the gospel was 
burned into his soul, so with his might and main he 
labored to preach that gospel to all people, and to 
gather his followers into a body that should be perfect 
in the simplicity of its organization and methods and 
yet be most effective in its work. Thus, without a 
consciousness of the fact, Mr. Wesley was the instru- 
ment under Christ of recreating and restoring, in the 



22 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

form of Methodism, the Reformed Church of England 
as the nearest approach to the Apostolic Church, in the 
purity of its doctrine, its simplicity, and its effectiveness. 
Methodism was thus a special child of Providence. 
It approved itself to many who had found no haven 
of rest for their burdened souls, although eagerly seek- 
ing where one might be found ; it met the wants of those 
who had but little of comfort in this world by holding 
up the Saviour's exhortations and promises of the rest of 
another world ; to the weak in will-power it promised 
help and strength; it opened a large field of usefulness 
to many who perceived its spirit and its adaptation to 
meet man's greatest wants. It was an inspiration to 
many who had never before realized that Christ's invita- 
tion was to all men, that all might be saved and partake 
of His glory ; that He would give to each one a witness 
that should satisfy him of his adoption into the family 
of God; that his heart should be filled with the love of 
Christ ; that He had promised not to forsake him in this 
life nor in the dark passage, and finally would show to 
each one the Father in another life. Estimating these 
facts by the laws of human nature, it is no wonder 
that Methodism spread rapidly in England; that it 
gathered into its fold from all classes of society, aud 
has been from that time onward a great spiritual power. 
Nor will it be surprising that it was transported into 
this country, w r here it could be freed from the entangle- 
ments which for many years beset, and even yet hinder 
its growth in England, in the overpowering influence 
of the Established Church, and in the stronghold 
which the Presbyterian Churches maintain over the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 23 

Northern mind. Its history in our own country, as 
well as in England, has been exhaustively written j it 
will not be repeated herein, except as it may touch the 
subject of this essay. 

The preceding pages have been written mainly with 
the object of bringing to the attention of the members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in this country the 
proper place which their denomination occupies in the 
history and work of the general church, and to deduce 
from this position the further important fact that it 
has a philosophic as well as a moral right of existence, 
in that the general church of Jesus Christ on the earth 
may be divided into two classes : the one, the Catholic 
Churches, embracing the Greek and Roman, and the 
other, the Methodist Churches, representing the prin- 
ciples of the Reformed Church of England. With 
the former may be classed such churches or portions of 
churches that hold to the forms and traditions of the 
early Roman Church, with its Judaic and Pagan rites 
and ceremonies; to the latter maybe added the various 
forms of Protestantism that, while spiritual and in the 
main orthodox, yet are narrower in their teachings, 
and hold certain special doctrines or retain certain 
forms which prevent the acceptance of the truths of 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their full simplicity and 
attendant power. 

The character of the teaching of this gospel by 
Methodism has had a marked influence on that of other 
Protestant Churches, and some of their most thoughtful 
men are desirous of adopting many of the peculiarities 
of its methods and organization. 



24 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

There is not space here to analyze the points of dif- 
ference between these two great and representative 
churches, nor to compare them with those of their 
subordinate allies. As the leaders of Christendom 
they have many points of resemblance. Their methods 
of influencing men are based on an intelligent knowl- 
edge and appreciation of man's mental, moral, and 
spiritual nature. Each church directs its chief efforts 
in certain lines to reach certain parts of this composite 
being, man; and just as the special qualities of indul- 
gence of the senses, of devotion, of reverence, of self- 
denial, of adoration, of imagination, of order, of fear, 
of duty, of trust, of love, and of awe are unduly or 
unequally developed, so will the person naturally in- 
cline to one or the other church or the branches thereof. 
A. full and equal development of man's moral nature 
and intellectual capacity, under the teachings of Jesus 
Christ, would be perfection; it is this more equal de- 
velopment of the powers of the heart and mind that 
characterizes Methodism and has made her the leader 
of the Protestant Churches ; it has also enabled her to 
divide with the Roman Catholic Church the honor of 
being the church for the masses of the people. 

If this view of the position and work of the Meth- 
odist Churches in the United States is correct, then the 
responsibility on their membership is great ; and if it 
be said, with one of old, Who can bear it? the answer 
may be, That all things under God are possible to 
those who put their trust in Him. 

Such responsibility can only be met by a careful ex- 
amination of the causes which have placed the church 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 25 

in such a position, and a thoughtful inquiry, to be made 
by each branch of Methodism, to ascertain if by any 
changes they may more fully perform their mission of 
spreading scriptural holiness over all the lands, and 
further to examine if there are any impediments or 
hindrances in the way. Before proceeding to make 
such suggested examinations and inquiries as they may 
affect the Methodist Episcopal Church, it is important 
to understand 

THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FORM OF 
GOVERNMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

To do this in the fewest words, it may be said that 
the wisdom of Christ, in His knowledge of His disci- 
ples and the wants of His creatures, is evident from 
the fact that He gave no specific form of government ; 
that He commissioned His disciples to go out into the 
world and teach the people His gospel, receiving sup- 
port as they could, and when in need, to work at their 
trades for their own support ; and that they might be 
entirely free for this work of teaching, the young church, 
in a mass meeting, directed that others should see to the 
poor and needy. 

The most important meeting of the Apostles and 
believers that is recorded was called for the purpose of 
comparing notes and seeing if they could agree together 
as to the instructions of Christ on the points involved 
in the performance of their work. They met as equals. 

The simplest idea, then, of a church is an assembly 
of believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, embracing 
men and women, "The multitude of them that be- 
b 3 



26 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

lieved." Some of these may be teachers, some care- 
takers of the poor, supplying the wants of the saints, but 
all are on an equality. From this form of government 
there may be divergencies for the purpose of increased 
efficiency without destruction of the cardinal principle 
of equality. 

It is, then, by this test that the present organization 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church and any proposed 
changes should be tried : that if there are any provisions 
in its organization which are subversive of this princi- 
ple, they are a hindrance to the cause and should be 
eliminated ; or if any changes or additions can be made 
to increase the efficiency of the church which are in 
harmony with this principle of equality, they should 
be introduced into its organic laws. 

CAUSES OF GROWTH OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH. 

The point is now reached when it may be profitable 
to analyze the chief causes of the growth of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. This has been due (after the 
acknowledgment that all success comes from God) to 
the character of the doctrines preached by its teachers, 
viz. : repentance, free grace, the witness of the spirit, 
justification by faith, holiness of heart, and purity 
of life; to the active co-operation and employment of 
the laity in the religious exercises, to the deep spiritual 
experience of its teachers and people, to the earnest ex- 
hortations, the personal appeals, the godly lives of its 
members ; to the hearty responses to sentiments that 
affected the heart or fired the imagination ; to the whole- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 27 

souled singing, the touching melodies, the religious fer- 
vor ; to the earnest and trusting appeals to the Deity for 
help, and to the brotherly aid and sympathy. It has been 
religion on fire. The religious character and zeal of its 
ministry have added to its success : many of them were 
men of marked powers of mind ; they were educated 
in a school that made few half-grown men. The fre- 
quent change of its ministers had great influence, giving 
the people the advantage not only of regular preaching, 
but secured to them a higher average of preaching than 
would otherwise have been possible, and has thus en- 
abled the church to reach, by the use of the itinerancy 
and its system of circuits, every nook and corner of the 
land as it was opened to settlement. These pioneers, 
thus schooled, acquired a practical education that few 
men now have, and that is only possible in new coun- 
tries. Among such men there was no room for gowns, 
formal services, written sermons, genuflections, bowing 
to the east, and so on ; their work was more earnest ; they 
could not so trifle with time or the interests of immortal 
souls ; they had to be at work in their Master's vineyard. 
The itinerant preacher, when his term of service was 
limited to two years, confined his teaching to a discus- 
sion of the leading topics in the religion of Jesus Christ, 
closing each sermon with a practical application and an 
appeal. This was strong food for the people; it was 
not diluted by being extended through a service of five, 
ten, or twenty years. Probably this kind of preaching 
was the stronger and the more .pointed because of the 
inability of many of the ministers to present a diluted 
gospel in an attractive form. Their preaching partook 



28 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

more of the style of the utterances of Christ Himself, 
of the Apostles, and of the early disciples; it approached 
the yea, yea, and the nay, nay. The threatenings of the 
gospel were declared with deep earnestness and in tones 
of thunder : " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish." And the entreaties and invitations of the gos- 
pel were uttered with hearts full of love for the perish- 
ing, with voices full of sympathetic tones, and often 
with tears : " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

Such preaching forced its hearers to think and to act. 
That it had marvellous influence and power is to be 
expected from the working of the laws of man's mental 
and moral nature. Then, too, the condition of the public 
mind, the habits and surroundings of the people were 
favorable to the reception of the gospel as preached by 
the Methodist itinerants. Again, the personal interest 
felt by the members of the church in the conversion of 
their families, their friends, and neighbors, and for all 
with whom they came in contact, — following them up 
with their exhortations and with their prayers, rejoicing 
with them in their conversion and welcoming them into 
the church, had a great influence in adding to its num- 
bers. This influence was continued by the watchful 
care over the new converts by the class-leaders. The 
encouragement to take part in religious meetings 
strengthened the ties that bound them to the church, 
for with these exercises came a feeling of greater per- 
sonal interest and a sense of personal responsibility. 
These influences are of a higher grade than the social in- 
fluences that also characterized the Methodist people, — 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 29 

a result of their frequent association in the services of 
the church, the class- and prayer-meetings, the Sunday- 
school, and the benevolent work. Other churches may 
have a development of power from the social relations 
of their people, but they lack that special power which 
comes through a sympathy with the public and private 
struggles of penitents, the joy at their conversion, and 
the encouragement in their religious life, in the use 
of its special means of grace. These are among the 
most prominent elements of the growth of the church. 
To repeat : these are its doctrines, its means of grace, 
— the earnestness of its teachers, the efficiency of its 
organization, and the religious and social power devel- 
oped in its people. 

It will not be thought singular that such influences 
should have produced a peculiar people, with distinct 
marks by which their meetings are known all over the 
world ; that there has been developed a certain spirit, a 
certain something that is felt wherever and whenever 
they are met; that this spirit pervades the people, and 
therefore one body is the type of all. By such a spirit 
Methodism is bound with cords that cannot be broken, 
whatever may be the divergencies needed to suit differ- 
ent conditions of time and place. 

But while all this is true of Methodism, yet there 
are some points in its history and in the organization 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church that should in pass- 
ing be noticed. It may be found that great as its prog- 
ress has been, it should have or might have been more 
useful in its work if there had been certain modifications 
made years ago in its form of government. 

3* 



30 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

GROWTH OF MINISTERIAL POWER. 

To go back a short way in history. It will be re- 
membered that when Methodism was first introduced 
into this country it partook largely of the character of 
its founder; it was his child, and with wonderful wisdom 
for the times, he gave not only Methodism in England 
its organization (effected after his death), but suggested 
that for this country. . 

As the church was started by ministers appointed by 
Mr. Wesley, and as they had to build up a people, it 
was natural that they should engraft upon the new 
church the principles of ministerial supremacy in which 
Mr. Wesley was educated, and on which he was form- 
ing the church in England, and that they should be 
influenced by the then prevailing doctrine in church 
and state: that power, concentrated in the hands of 
the few, was a primary condition for the efficiency of all 
governments. An argument in favor of such concen- 
tration of power was found in the fact that the min- 
isters were more competent by intelligence and experi- 
ence to formulate and conduct the business of a new 
church than the average of their members. It was 
also influenced by the time and expense necessarily 
involved in attending the meetings of the Annual Con- 
ferences (covering large sections of country), as well as 
the meetings of the General Conference, which were 
composed of delegates from all the Conferences. In 
the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches the same draw- 
backs of time and money did not exist, as the Presby- 
teries covered less territory, and the Baptist Churches 
were independent. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 31 

This cost of time and outlay of money could be ill 
afforded by the people. The support of the churches 
and the ministry, in addition to that of their families, 
kept the laity closely at work. How great such a de- 
mand of time and money would have been will be ap- 
preciated when it is remembered that in the early days 
there were no railways, few or no steamboats ; stage- 
lines on only the important thoroughfares, the common 
roads imperfect, and transportation largely made on the 
saddle. The form of the general government as well 
as those of the different States were being discussed ; 
there was a prevailing fear of too much freedom for the 
individual. Infidelity was the supporter of a so-called 
republicanism, and it was but natural that such facts 
should influence the character of the organization of 
a new church. The peculiarities in the organization of 
Episcopal Methodism and the distribution of power are, 
perhaps, more immediately due to the fact that its early 
ministers were evangelists, and that the form of the 
government of the church slowly crystallized on the 
basis of the most effective evangelistic work. Some of 
the earlier secessions from the church were due to an 
attempt to change this system to that of an established 
church, after the manner of other religious bodies. 
They failed both by reason of the inopportune time 
and because there was no generally felt necessity for 
the change. To harmoniously combine the demands 
of an established church with the evangelistic charac- 
teristics of Methodism is the important work of the 
present day. 

The increase of the young church was most rapid 



32 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

in the States south of Pennsylvania, among the middle 
and higher classes of people who had become planters. 
The travels of Asbury reveal many interesting facts as 
to the rapid spread of Methodism among this people. 
Methodism had in the South nearly an open field and 
was not hindered or embarrassed in its operations, ex- 
cept in part of the State of Virginia, by the overruling 
presence and influence of other churches. It therefore 
rapidly gained the ascendency in social position and 
influence, which it has retained until this day. 

This scattered people, under these conditions, will- 
ingly accepted the form of government, the product 
of its evangelism. 

The Methodist ministry led the emigrants into the 
West, and, except where they met an advanced emi- 
gration from New England or of the Scotch-Irish from 
Pennsylvania, the church has held the most influential 
place among the Protestant Churches. In the country 
north of Delaware, including New England, Meth- 
odism appealed to the humbler classes, the other Prot- 
estant Churches having the ascendency in society. Its 
churches were largely composed of Irish and English 
emigrants or their descendants, who in their early and 
home experience had been taught that to the ministry 
belonged the control of the church, and under the in- 
fluence of such early education they acquiesced in the 
absorption of power by the ministers. The general ac- 
ceptation of the form of government by the members 
was also due to the judicious action of the ministry 
in selecting among the members those best suited for 
class-leaders, stewards, trustees, local preachers, and ex- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 33 

horters, so that so far as the local church was affected 
there was no objection to the exercise of ministerial 
power. 

The entire power of legislation in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church up to 1872 was thus in the hands 
of the preachers, and it was in accordance with the 
facts in the case when the Supreme Court of the 
United States a few years back decided that the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church legally consisted of the bishops 
and ministers. 

The Wesleyan Church in England was framed on 
the same principles, and its original and ultimate 
authority, " the hundred/' is yet composed exclusively 
of ministers. That church suffered the loss of many 
of its ablest preachers and best laymen by its long- 
continued refusal to introduce laymen into its councils. 
It is hazarding but little to say that if at the time of 
the secession of the New Connection in 1793 a prudent 
yielding on this question had been made, other after- 
withdrawals would not have taken place ; and to-day 
Wesleyan Methodism, in place of being largely a con- 
tributor to the Established Church of its richer members 
and of its talented sons in the ministry, would have held 
a more influential position, and would have been the 
means of doing more good as a united people than di- 
vided up as they have been and now are. The yielding 
of lay representation, although too late to remedy the 
evil that had been done, has nevertheless done much to 
establish that church in a stronger position ; its collec- 
tions have largely increased ; new zeal in its mission 
work, church and school building has been developed, 



34 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

and the Wesleyan Church in England is made stronger 
and more influential by the admission of laymen into 
its councils, though with restricted powers. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
States has not been without its drawbacks in this direc- 
tion. The secession of the Methodist Protestants, 
mainly on account of lay representation, gave the 
church much trouble at an early day. The separatists 
gained but little by going out of the church, except 
it may be the preservation of their self-respect. It 
would have been better for the cause of lay represen- 
tation if they had remained, for by going out they 
not only did not help the cause of those who agreed 
with them, but hindered it for many years, by making 
possible the charge of disruptionists or destructionists 
against all who spoke or wrote in favor of introducing 
laymen into the councils of the church. The ministry 
were ready, as a class, to discourage every effort in 
this direction, and when the changes in the law were 
completed by the General Conference of 1872, they 
were limited to the admission in the General Conference 
of two lay members from each Annual Conference, add- 
ing in lieu of equal numbers the power of a separate 
vote. So much was granted by the ministry to appease 
the determined demand of the laity for some, although 
an unequal representation ; it was yielded under press- 
ure, and not by the free consent or with the good wishes 
of the ministry as a body ; so hard is it for men to yield 
any portion of power once held or to divide it with those 
they have formerly ruled. They forget the fundamental 
principle of all government, that a grant of power may 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 35 

be for the benefit of a people under certain conditions, 
but when the conditions are changed the people have 
the right to resume such power. 

It is a fair inference from the foregoing statements 
that the early success of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
was due, so far as its organization was involved, to its 
effectiveness, secured by placing the power in the hands 
of, at that time the most competent parties, the min- 
isters. But as the conditions under which such organi- 
zation was formed have changed, and as the new con- 
ditions now indicate the importance of a modification 
of this power, so the question comes up before the 
members of the church as to how much of the power, 
which is inherent in them, shall be withdrawn from 
the ministry by reason of changes in the conditions 
under which the church was originally organized. 
Among these changes, no one is so great or so im- 
portant as the change in the ability of the laity to take 
part in its councils and perform their duty therein 
with credit to themselves and advantage to the church. 
The best evidence that the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is recognized by the Father above is in the character 
of her members. She can, with motherly pride, say, 
These are my children. There is now a large family, 
and they will compare favorably with their brethren 
in other churches in natural and acquired ability, 
in moral worth, and in religious character and zeal. 
Worldly success has been given them as a result of 
prudence, foresight, and industry; the good gifts of 
this world have been freely bestowed on them by a 
generous Father. They now have the education, piety, 



36 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

time, and means to devote to the interests of the church. 
With these changed conditions, the question that has 
so often been discussed comes up with greater force, — 
whether the laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
are as useful in the cause of Christ as they would be 
were they more freely admitted into the councils of 
the church, and made to bear a greater share of its 
responsibilities. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 37 



CHAPTER II. 

The Defects in the Organization of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and in its Eepresentative Bodies, and the Dangers 
arising therefrom to the Church as a Body, to the Ministry, 
and to the Membership. 

It may now be well to very frankly analyze the 
working of the organization of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. It has been tenderly handled ; the whole 
truth has not always been told ; there has been a 
hesitation to expose its weak points, lest injury should 
result. The same arguments are used for keeping 
silence that politicians so well understand. This is all 
wrong ; the Methodist Episcopal Church is too strong, 
too pure in its membership and ministry, to fear any 
fair statement of what may seem to some defects, or 
the discussion of any changes that may be suggested as 
improvements in her methods. 

The action of the General Conferences of 1880 and 
1884 must satisfy the members of the church that 
there is a decided unwillingness on the part of the 
ministers to increase lay representation in the General 
Conference to an equality in numbers with the minis- 
ters, or to introduce lay representation in the Annual 
Conferences. 

The confidence of the laity in the wisdom of the 
ministry as a body was misplaced ; the good results of 

4 



38 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the introduction of lay representation in the General 
Conference, in place of being, to many of them, an 
argument in favor of such increased representation, has 
had the contrary effect. The taking, in a few instances, 
of votes by orders; the instances of the independent 
action of the laymen as a body ; and the failure of a 
majority of ministerial representatives to carry their 
points, has created a party who seem determined to 
resist any further introduction of laymen into the 
councils of the church. There is a prevailing fear 
among the members of this party that with the fuller 
introduction of laymen the influence of the ministry in 
the Conferences will be materially decreased. 

The laity of the church cannot, then, depend on any 
free action of the majority of the ministry. Even the 
confidence placed in the wisdom of the ministers by the 
laymen was used against them, for the puerile argument 
was urged that such increased representation was not 
asked for, and this question, that should have been 
favorably decided, was referred to a committee, to re- 
port to the General Conference in 1888. In such man- 
ner were the laity of the church trifled with, and treated 
as grumbling children, and the interests of the church 
sacrificed that the ministry might have a few more 
years of power. Great leaders never wait to enact 
reforms until the people are in revolt, or become in- 
tensely excited and demand reform. An evil grows 
out of thus refusing reform in church matters that 
should be avoided, and that is, the suggestion of the 
question of the wisdom and single-mi ndedness of the 
ministry. Such questions will be raised when people 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 39 

feel oppression or any denial of rights. They do not 
stop to inquire very carefully into the reasons which 
actuate their rulers ; they look at the end, and are apt 
to consider all who oppose them as wanting in some 
good qualities. Such conduct lessens the respect for 
and confidence in their spiritual leaders. 

Great men should be the first to see the need of re- 
form and prepare the people for it. This is what the 
General Conference should have done ; they failed to 
do it ; there is no hope in the future that they will act 
differently. The laity are thus forced to take action. 

To help to a decision as to the policy and wisdom 
of introducing laymen into the councils of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church on terms of equality with the 
ministers, the following suggestions are submitted to 
the careful and prayerful consideration of the mem- 
bership : 

EQUALITY OF BELIEVEES THE PROPER BASIS OF A 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

First: It is a prerequisite that the form of the 
organization of a Christian church should be in har- 
mony with the principles on which the original church 
was established by Jesus Christ. To ascertain what 
such principles were it is only necessary to restate the 
substance of what has been already written, — that the 
church was made up of the family of believers, each 
one in all respects the equal of the other, and that as 
the numbers of believers increased, for the convenience 
of the body and to promote efficiency, certain duties 
were assigned to certain persons. 



40 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

It will be well to remember, in this connection, that 
while legislative and executive powers are necessary to 
make an organization effective, yet the problem is to 
so distribute these powers that, while they secure the 
greatest wisdom and efficiency, they shall infringe to 
the least extent on the natural and social rights of man, 
and that they tend to help man upward in the path 
of progress. Knowledge, wisdom, and purity are re- 
quired by the legislator ; energy, tact, skill, and knowl- 
edge of men are as necessary to the executive officer. 
It is a well-established principle that in the distribution 
of these powers the liberties of the people, and their 
growth, the purity of churches, and their usefulness, 
are always conserved by limiting such grant of power 
to the necessities of each case. " Privileges," John 
Bright says, "everywhere tend to beget ignorance, 
selfishness, and arrogance." In this way, as nations 
axid churches develop by wise legislation and the pru- 
dence of executive officials, less power of legislation and 
administration are required to be placed in the hands 
of the few : the intelligence and virtue of the people 
having increased, they can the better trust themselves 
with self-government. These principles are applicable 
to the Methodist Episcopal Church to-day. 

Taken in connection with the principle of equality 
in Christ's Church, it is evident that a call to the min- 
istry does not per se carry with it any power in the 
management of the church itself. Christ gave no 
power of government either to His Apostles or dis- 
ciples. The call is to preach, not to control or govern 
the church. The ministers are to be the servants of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 41 

the church, for Christ's sake. It is true there are 
some in our ministry who have higher notions of their 
position and of the extent of the call than Christ in- 
tended ; there is a fascination for them in the Romish 
and Episcopal theories of priestly office, position, and 
power over the people, and they sometimes forget that 
Jesus Christ did away with a human priesthood. Many 
of them imagine that the laity were made to be gov- 
erned by the ministry as some in past time argued 
that the black man was made to be a servant and a 
slave to the white. This idea of the priestly office 
crops out very often in the utterances of Methodist 
preachers. It seems to be imagined that in the laying 
on of hands they received the power to govern the 
church. An instance is at hand in an editorial of the 
Philadelphia Methodist, in the issue of May 17, 1884. 
In referring to the question before the General Con- 
ference, of the introduction of lay representation in 
the Annual Conferences, the editor uses these words : 
" Whatever the legislation on this subject, ministers 
will be in the future, as they have been in the past, 
practically the legislators and executive officers of the 
church, and why should they not be ? It is pre-emi- 
nently their work, as overseers of God's heritage, and 
they ought to attend to it." 

This is priestly arrogance ; high-church is rn without 
limitation ; this is asserting the inherent right of the 
ministry to lord it over God's people as they please. 
It places the laity in the relation of slaves to their 
masters. This construction of the word " oversee" is 
not " to take care of the flock," " to feed the church 

4* 



42 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

of God," "to protect it from the grievous wolves," 
as Christ used the word. Jesus Christ is the great 
shepherd of the flock. " He leadeth them into green 
pastures and by still waters." The ministry of His 
church may have supervision of the flock ; they may 
go in advance ; more than this they cannot do. 

The Philadelphia Methodist has many sympathizers 
among the ministers in the church in the thus strongly 
expressed belief. 

If there is no scriptural basis for the sole government 
of the church by the ministry, and if the granting of 
power is for reasons of prudence and efficiency, then a 
ready test of all church organizations is provided. The 
first duty of the members (lay and clerical) of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church will, therefore, be to try its 
polity by these principles, first assuming to themselves 
all power in the church, and then delegating so much 
of it as can be properly used to make the church more 
useful and effective. How much will hereafter be con- 
sidered. The point now is to establish the principles 
and to show where the original power in a church gov- 
ernment is placed. That the power of the ministry in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church is nearly absolute, limited 
only by the small laiacal representation in the General 
Conference, was acknowledged in an editorial in the 
Christian Advocate of June, 1884, as follows : " We 
give our ministry a place of command, and protect the 
churches against tyranny." This opinion, so broadly 
expressed, should awaken deep concern in the mind and 
heart of every lay member. Though the fact has been 
well understood, yet its avowal at the time, in connec- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 43 

tion with the assumptions of the Philadelphia Metho- 
dist, has a meaning which will not be acceptable to the 
church. The laity will remember that a power that has 
to be guarded to prevent its tyrannical use is always 
dangerous to the liberties of a people; that there is 
a constant temptation to misuse or abuse such power, 
and that such abuse generally ends in oppression and 
revolution. The assumption of a divine right to gov- 
ern nations by kingly power is not as full of danger to 
a. people as the same assumption of a divine right given 
to the ministry to rule and " command" the church of 
Jesus Christ. The power to command in human gov- 
ernments is limited to absolute monarchies, such as 
Russia, Turkey, Abyssinia. Power in all barbarous 
and semi-barbarous nations is absolute. 

The Advocate is in error when it says this power is 
so guarded that it cannot be tyrannically used. There 
is no limit in the Methodist Episcopal Church to the 
possible tyrannical use of power by a preacher or by a 
body of its preachers. They control every legislative 
and executive body in the church; they make the 
Quarterly Conference, can influence the election of 
lay delegates to the General Conference, are sole mem- 
bers of the Annual Conferences, and are largely in the 
majority in the General Conference. Every element of 
the power "to command" is in their control; there 
is no legal provision against the abuse of this power. 
Fortunately, the good sense and piety of the ministry 
have somewhat restrained an abuse of this power " to 
command." The laity of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church can never forget that the iron hand exists, 



44 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

though it be encased in a velvet glove. The exist- 
ence of such a power is offensive to all right think- 
ing men, for it suggests that of the king over his 
subjects, and of the czar over his serfs. Yet such 
power, according to the Advocate, is, by the organiza- 
tion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the hands 
of its ministry, and this without any legal restraints to 
prevent its tyrannical use. Methodist ministers should 
remember that Christ gave Apostles, prophets, evange- 
lists, and teachers " for the perfecting of the saints, for 
the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the 
body of Christ." 

Then again, the institutions of a country, civil and 
religious, must partake of the general character and 
spirit of the government which accords them the right 
of existence. In monarchical governments power is 
given to the few, in republican governments it is the at- 
tribute of the many. The character of the government 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the clergy is 
therefore inimical to the settled policy of this country, 
and is repugnant to the feeling of its people ; and while 
it is true that the divine government is superior to that 
of its creatures, yet the harmony and equality in au- 
thority in the church, established by Christ, are adapted 
to all governments and to all peoples. It may be 
reverently said that in leaving details of organization 
to the good judgment of His followers, His knowledge 
of the weakness of the ministers who would follow Him, 
and the peculiar temptations to which they would be 
exposed, forbade His placing power over His children 
in their hands. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 45 

History fails not in recording the fact that whenever 
man, under the garb of the priesthood, has succeeded 
in gaining authority over the church, sooner or later 
the result of the exercise of such power is written in 
the degradation of the church and in lasting injury to 
the people. The Methodist Episcopal Church with its 
glorious history cannot escape the same result if its 
future is left in charge of and under the control of its 
ministry. This statement may be startling to some, 
may be denied by others, but such denials do not change 
the history of the past, nor do they change the nature 
of man ; the same results follow the same causes every- 
where and in all times. 

Again, it is not incumbent on the part of those who 
argue for the freer action and control of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church by its members, that they should 
prove that its success will be greater with such changes 
as the church at large may adopt. The onus of proof is 
on the other side ; they must show that the unnatural 
division of responsibility as it now exists will more 
certainly secure success. The prima-facie inference is 
in favor of success by exercise of the natural rights of 
the people ; it will take much reasoning to prove the 
contrary. To the eye of reason the ministerial power in 
the church is indefensible upon any principle accepted 
at the present day ; there is absolutely no argument by 
which an arrangement which gives a man power over 
legislation, simply because he has been admitted into a 
Methodist Conference, can, in the abstract, be defended. 
The only plea to-day for the power of the ministry is, 
that notwithstanding its theoretical indefensibility it 



46 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

has worked well in practice; but this is begging the 
question. It does not prove that better results could 
not have been gained or that equally good results will 
continue. 

The conclusion, then, must be, that all power rests 
in the body of the members, and that special power 
may be given for special purposes. There cannot be 
an Athenian democracy in a great church, there may 
be a well-balanced republicanism. On this basis, 
which is but a restatement of our former investigation, 
it is proposed to try the organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church as it now exists. 

A single intimation remains to be recorded for the 
benefit of all concerned, namely, that the people of 
every country will have the use of their natural rights 
just as far as they are competent to use them without 
injury to themselves or to others. As civilization, 
the product of Christianity, is developed among any 
people will there be more liberty for the individual. 
It was but fifty-three years ago that the crown of 
England practically gave up its right to veto an act of 
Parliament ; and in the recent contest over the exten- 
sion of the franchise to admit more than two millions 
of the inhabitants of England to be voters and citi- 
zens, the House of Lords has been forced to bow to 
the will of the people, as represented in the House of 
Commons, and to forego its right of disagreement, when 
an act which affects the natural right of the people is 
passed by the lower house. The trend of the liberation 
of the individual and of the independence of the people 
is always to greater freedom and the enjoyment of their 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 47 

highest rights. As in the state, so in the church. The 
days of priestly rule are fast passing away; let the 
ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church heed the 
facts. 

DANGERS TO THE CHURCH. 

The second important inquiry embraces an examina- 
tion into, First : The nature and causes of the dangers 
that threaten the inner life of the church. 

Second : The nature, causes, and operation of the 
dangers growing out of the organization of the church. 

FIRST : AS TO DANGER TO THE INNER LIFE OF THE 
CHURCH. 

Every thoughtful layman must be impressed with 
the fact that the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
reached a point in its history of supreme importance 
to the cause it represents. Nations, individuals, and 
churches reach critical points in their progress, when 
an error of judgment may interfere to stop their growth 
and destroy their prosperity. It seems to many that 
the Methodist Episcopal Church has entered upon its 
trying time and is exposed to injury in its usefulness 
from many classes of causes. 

The dangers that threaten its inner life include the 
zeal, earnestness, devotion, self-denial, and piety of the 
ministry and members, and whatever may affect its re- 
ligious character and influence on the world. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has done a great 
and good work for Christ. In the past, it was often 
looked down upon, ridiculed, its members treated as 



48 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

fanatics and its clergy rated as ignorant and ill-man- 
nered upstarts. To-day Wesleyan Methodism influ- 
ences the thought, the theology, the religious life, and 
the politics of England. It affects the policy of Eng- 
land in dealing with the nations of the earth. Its in- 
fluence is felt wherever the flag of England is erected. 
The debt of gratitude due by this country to Wesleyan 
Methodism, through its immediate representative, the 
Rev. William Arthur, of London, in preventing the 
alliance of England with France in the early part of 
the late rebellion, has never been fully understood, 
properly presented, or appreciated by the American 
people. 

To-day Methodism in the United States reaches 
through its ministry not less than one-fifth of the 
people of this country. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church, with its nearly two million of members, its 
twelve thousand ministers, with its churches, colleges, 
universities, and schools, reaches from seven to eight 
millions of the people. Its missionary work in foreign 
lands commands the respect, and often the aid, of their 
governments. It is recognized at home as well as 
abroad as a great harmonizer of social differences ; as 
keeping close up with every forward movement of 
civilization; as being the best exponent of the truth 
of the doctrines it teaches. 

Its ministers hold a high place in public estimation. 
Their utterances command respect. The laity are rapidly 
increasing in intelligence, influence, and wealth. They 
hold many of the highest places in the country, in the 
general and State governments, judicial and administra- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 49 

tive. The union of the Methodist vote would determine 
any political canvass in the nation, and this whether for 
officers of the State or of the general government, and 
as its teaching is kept close within certain lines, so will 
the effect of such teaching be felt on all political ques- 
tions wherein those teachings are favored or opposed. 
Mr. Calhoun felt the gain to his theory of secession by 
the unnecessary division of the church in 1844, and 
Mr. Lincoln recognized the power of this union of 
thought and purpose during the civil war. The influ- 
ence of the leaders of the church is therefore eagerly 
sought by political partisans. The days of ostracism, 
of the refusal of public recognition, of the ministry and 
laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church are no more. 
In it there was little of danger, though it tended to 
limit the influence of the church for good. Persecution 
and neglect bear good as well as bad fruit. Rapid and 
marked success attracts flatterers, begets pride and self- 
confidence, and these precede downfall and disgrace. 

The church is subject to the same laws as the indi- 
vidual. Nothing is so dangerous to a man as a very 
rapid gain in fortune or elevation in position or power. 
These tend to create over-confidence, to excite pride of 
thought. They make the man forget the steps which 
led him upward. So to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, there is danger in her present numbers, wealth, 
and influence. All, if used aright, will tend to good, 
but if ill used, to evil. 

Then, too, the tendency is strong, in the older por- 
tion of the church, to be satisfied with what it has 
done, to put on the dignity of successful old age, and 

C d 5 



50 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

to cease the vigorous efforts of the past. The respect- 
ability of its new position tempts to lifeless sermons 
and formal services. It affords a comfortable home to 
those who recognize that Church attendance and mem- 
bership are required by the customs and decencies of 
society. While to the laity these temptations may be 
strong, yet their greatest influence is on the pastors 
of the church. If they yield to these influences the 
laity must either follow in their steps, or by strong will- 
power resist such influences and save their leaders. If 
the church is faithful to her work, her future will be 
one of greater and wider usefulness than in any portion 
of her past history. If the contrary, she will decrease, 
and God will raise up another body to do her work. 
His work must be done. 

The next possible danger to the inner life of the 
church lies in the failure to make such changes in its 
organization as will bring into active use all the mem- 
bers of its body. The human body can only be kept 
in a healthy condition by the exercise of its various 
parts. The best results of heart and mind are depend- 
ent on such use of all parts. So with the church. 
Its safety and usefulness depend on the full use of the 
graces and gifts bestowed on its laity and ministry, and 
its success is the sum total of these uses, expressed 
through its heart and thought. 

There can be no difference in opinion among the 
readers of this paper that the church must carefully 
guard the entrance to her inner life, and keep out evil; 
that her future usefulness will depend on the contin- 
uance of the faithful use of the means and ways that 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 51 

brought her to her present position, under the favor- 
ing hand of the Head of the Church ; that the church 
must freely use the talents, wisdom, means, and piety 
of her members. The church must not seek the things 
of the world, for they work destruction, but those of 
the spirit, which tend to salvation. 

SECOND : DANGERS FROM ITS ORGANIZATION. 

The organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church* 
is remarkable for its simplicity, for its completeness, 
for its efficiency, for the ease with which it can be car- 
ried on, and for its economy in cost. It is indeed re- 
markable for its covering of all important points in 
church life and work, and for its easy adaptation to all 
classes of people, in all countries. The intelligent peo- 
ple of this country, outside of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, know but little about it. They note its growth, 
but have failed to understand the laws of its growth. 
In efficiency of organization it is in advance of all 
the Protestant Churches of the Old and New World, 
and surpassed only by the Roman Catholic Church. 
The readers of this essay will not need any detailed 
analysis of the organization. It will be enough to recall 
the principal points, that they may more readily under- 
stand, and appreciate, any comments that may be made. 

Before the complete organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church at the Christmas Conference of 1784, 
the ministers appointed by Mr. Wesley had introduced 

* The Methodist Episcopal Church South is included in all 
references to Episcopal Methodism. 



52 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the itinerancy, a reproduction of the evangelistic work 
of the Apostles and early disciples. The principles of the 
itinerancy so introduced were accepted by that Confer- 
ence, and it has from that time been a prominent char- 
acteristic in the polity of the church. These principles 
were : 

That the whole country was the field to be worked ; 
that the ministry should be sent two by two, from 
time to time, to such places, and to do such work, as 
the bishop or superintendent should designate, receiv- 
ing such support as the people to whom they were sent 
could or would give. 

In place of having one Annual Conference for the 
whole church, the country for convenience of adminis- 
tration was divided into smaller Conferences, composed 
of the ministers residing at the time within certain 
limits. These met annually, that the ministers might 
receive their appointments, and that the spiritual wants 
of such districts of country might be more effectually 
canvassed and provided for. 

The Conference territories were again subdivided 
into two or more districts, over which presiding elders 
were appointed. 

In every circuit or station there was organized a body 
called a Quarterly Conference, with certain duties, to 
be held every three months, and to be presided over by 
one of the presiding elders. 

The four points just named, viz. : the itinerancy, the 
law of support, the creation of Annual Conferences, 
and of Quarterly Conferences as helps in the executive 
work of the church, should be borne in mind, because 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 53 

efforts, hereafter to be noticed, are being made to alter 
their original status. 

The only original body in the church is the General 
Conference, which is held every four years. It is the 
law-making power, limited only by the restrictive rules 
adopted in 1808. It elects the bishops, who are general 
superintendents, their duty being to preside at all meet- 
ings of the Annual Conferences, to assign each preacher, 
in good standing, to a charge in some Conference or 
mission ; to w^atch carefully over the general interests 
of the church, and to preside over the meetings of the 
General Conference, but without right to speak or vote, 
because they are not members of the body. 

The Conference itself is composed of delegates elected 
from the Annual Conferences, in certain proportion to 
the number of ministers, which it fixes from time to 
time, with one or two lay delegates from each Annual 
Conference. It quadrennially determines the bounda- 
ries of the Annual Conferences and may establish new 
Conferences. It elects the general officers of the church 
societies, editors of the church papers, and the book 
agents. 

Such is the general organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. It is indeed a system of wheels, 
which may be of iron, but are so wonderfully fitted that 
they work with great ease and little friction. Its sys- 
tem of question and answer, in conducting business in 
the Annual and Quarterly Conferences, is a marvel of 
accuracy in reaching details, avoiding disputes, simpli- 
fying work, and economizing time. No other asso- 
ciation of men has so complete a system of procedure. 

5* 



54 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

To an intelligent man a study of this system of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church must prove a pleasure and 
a profit. But like all other of man's devices there are 
serious points of defect, both in the theory and in the 
working of the organization. 

It would be more than could be expected of any 
human institution if errors have not crept in and evils 
developed that need to be corrected, or if experience had 
not shown how to improve on the past. These points 
of danger, of error, of evil, and of proposed improve- 
ment in the organization deserve careful examination. 

First : The constitution of the legislative and executive 
bodies, or councils of the church, and their practical 
working. 

I. The General Conference. 

This, as the central power, and from which all others 
derive their life, demands the closest study. Its general 
construction has been described. The changes that are 
required to make it more useful and effective are funda- 
mental and protective in their nature. 

The first point suggested for criticism is that it is, 
in the main, as it was originally intended to be, under 
the control of the ministry. The reasons why this 
was accepted by the young church have already been 
stated. While there was much that was objectionable 
to the laity in the power held by the ministry, yet the 
earnestness, simplicity, single-mindedness, and deeply- 
religious character of the fathers made many amends. 
Their government of the church was remarkable for 
its prudence, wisdom, and forbearance. But the con- 
struction and functions of this body now come before 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 55 

the people with different surroundings : Primarily, the 
members of the church can be trusted with the charge 
of its interests; they have the intelligence, apprecia- 
tion of the doctrines and polity of the church, and the 
piety that has characterized the ministry. The mem- 
bership is rich in men and women who have the time 
to give to church work, and the financial ability to 
bear its expense. Secondly, the conservative influences 
are now on the side of the laity; and, TJiirdly, pre- 
latical notions of power are melting away before a more 
intelligent understanding of the true position of the 
ministry of the church as established by its founder, 
Jesus Christ. 

The basis on which the General Conference is con- 
structed, as to its membership, is at variance with the 
principles already established for the government of a 
Christian church. The General Conference is not a 
democratic body ; it does not represent " the body of 
believers." It is a ministerial aristocracy in the church. 
It represents the few. It was created by a class of 
men, by their assumption of power over the church. 
It has no authority in and of itself, as representing the 
Head of the Church ; the authority of the church is 
in the body of believers. 

If the General Conference were reconstructed in ac- 
cordance with Christ's example, in harmony with the 
institutions of this country, so as to secure in its mem- 
bership the largest amount of intelligence, wisdom, 
and piety, it should consist of representatives elected 
by the members of the church at large, both lay and 
clerical, without distinction of order; it would then 



56 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

represent the church. Such is the scriptural idea of 
the proper construction of the representative body of 
any church of Jesus Christ. 

But the influence of habits, customs, and old laws 
is so strong that they cannot be at once changed, even 
when a better way is shown. Progress in the Old 
World, in the reform of government, of laws and social 
customs, is hindered by the force of these habits and. 
customs, — the product of ages. It is hard to change 
inherited habits. We hold on to what was good in 
our fathers' time, or in our childhood ; there is a fan- 
cied conservatism and respectability connected with 
them that is pleasant. In this New World we are less 
tied to old habits of thought ; our very form of gov- 
ernment is a protest against those of the Old World. 
The great changes in government and social laws are 
made by the younger men, before they have felt the 
force of the love for the old, and therefore, while the 
suggestion just made as to the proper and scriptural 
construction of the General Conference may not meet 
the approbation of the older members, its truthfulness 
and wisdom may find a lodgment in younger and freer 
minds, and at a future date may produce fruit. 

The true theory of church government opens the way 
for a gradual change from the present unequal and 
unjust constitution of the General Conference in the 
direction of that which is better. It is therefore sug- 
gested that, while the proposed change might be con- 
sidered too radical, a beginning in the right direction 
should be attempted by at least making an equal repre- 
sentation of clerical and lay members. The glaring 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 57 

inequality in the last General Conference will be seen 
by the following figures : Whole number of minis- 
ters, 12,628 ; number of clerical representatives, 263. 
Whole number of lay members, 1,769,534; number 
of lay representatives, 154. This makes an average 
of one ministerial delegate for every forty-eight min- 
isters who are members of the Annual Conferences, 
and an average of one lay delegate for every eleven 
thousand four hundred and twenty-five members, 
making one member of an Annual Conference equal 
in represented power to two hundred and thirty-eight 
lay members of the church. 

No one can give any good reason why there should 
be any such difference between the number of the rep- 
resentatives of the ministry and of the laity. The 
ministers are in no sense a superior order of beings. 
They are morally and religiously no worse and no 
better than the laity. They are not more intelligent; 
they have no greater interest at stake, — indeed, they 
have less interest, because on the laity devolve not 
only all the religious duties of the minister, except the 
teaching, but in addition the laymen have to provide 
the means for sustaining them and the church. Will 
the laity think of it that this ratio makes one minister 
the equivalent in influence of two hundred and thirty- 
eight (238) lay members ; that is, the boy, with the 
down of youth upon his lip, is made equal in influence 
to two hundred and thirty-eight members of the church 
that recommended him to the Conference, — the wise 
fathers and godly mothers of the church. That one 
played-out minister, who is laid on the shelf for 



58 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

want of ability and probably of piety, — one who has 
tired of the work of his Master and has turned editor 
of a small paper, a travelling insurance agent, a patent- 
medicine dealer, a runner for newspapers, — is given, 
by the law of the church, as much influence by his 
vote as two hundred and thirty-eight of the best men 
and women of a church ! Are the laity of the church 
prepared to submit to such a state of facts ? 

But why this difference? Why have the laity so 
long borne such things ? Solely as a matter of habit. 
The church has been running in this groove from 
the first, and there is a disposition, natural enough 
with the ministers, to keep it there. The laity must 
wake up to the necessity of lifting the church out 
of this groove of inequality and injustice. In esti- 
mating the influence of the lay representatives in the 
General Conference, allowance should be made for the 
personal influence due to the larger number of the 
ministry ; to the fact that the ministers are practised and 
skilled public speakers, have ready tongues, and under- 
stand how to persuade and carry the minds of their 
hearers. These two elements of power give the min- 
isters, when added to their greater numbers, a decided 
advantage over the laity in a discussion. This ad- 
vantage is increased by the presence of many laymen 
who were elected delegates by the management of the 
ministry, and by the presence of the colored laymen, 
whose votes were undoubtedly, in the last General Con- 
ference, under the control of a few ministers. 

But the laymen labor under a still greater disadvan- 
tage in the fact that on the Standing Committees they 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 59 

are in the minority; the ministers greatly exceeding 
them in numbers. It is well known, also, that in all 
large bodies the preparatory work is done in commit- 
tees, and that a majority report of a committee is 
generally adopted by the principal body. The practi- 
cal result of this fact is, that the majority reports of 
committees, as prepared by and approved by the min- 
isterial members, are usually adopted by the Con- 
ference. The sum of these disadvantages, under 
which the laity labor, reduces their influence in the 
General Conference much below that due to the pro- 
portion of numbers, and forms a sufficient reason why 
the representatives in that body should be composed of 
at least equal numbers of laymen and ministers. 

BASIS OF REPRESENTATION. 

With the change of the composition of the General 
Conference, by the admission of equal numbers of the 
ministers and laity, unjust as it may be to the laity, 
is involved the necessity of an alteration in the basis 
of representation of both orders. By the present law 
there is a great inequality ; for example, the Discipline 
provides that each Annual Conference shall be entitled 
to one delegate for every forty-five members, and an 
additional delegate for every fraction of two-thirds of 
forty-five, and to two lay representatives, but that every 
Conference shall be entitled to one ministerial and one 
lay delegate. The unequal working of this scheme of 
representation will be more clearly seen in the follow- 
ing statements : 

Basing the calculation on the number of ministers 



60 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

and members of the church as given in the Discipline 
(1884) and the number of clerical (263) and lay (154) 
delegates who were elected to the General Conference 
in May, 1884, there were, First: 1 ministerial delegate 
for every 48 ministers; 1 lay delegate for every 10,297 
members ; 1 delegate for every 3830 members, clerical 
and lay members included. 

Second : In twenty-four Conferences, each having less 
than 45 members, there were 772 ministers and 69,371 
members, making 24 delegates of each order, or a 
total of 48. One ministerial delegate represented 32 
ministers; 1 lay delegate represented 2890 members; 
1 delegate represented 1401 members, clerical and lay 
included. 

Third : If the representation of these twenty-four 
Conferences had been confined to the average number 
above stated of 1 in 48 ministers and 1 in 10,297 
members, there would have been but 16 clerical and 9 
lay delegates, or in all 25, or if based on an average of 
3830, they would have been entitled to but 18 dele- 
gates. This inequality of representation, then, gave 
these twenty-four Conferences 8 clerical and 15 lay 
delegates more than they would have had on the basis 
of the general average, and 30 delegates more than if 
based on the whole number of ministers and members ; 
being over seven per cent, of the whole number of 
delegates to the General Conference. In these twenty- 
four Conferences there were five with a total of 87 
ministers and 10,582 members. They had 5 clerical 
and 5 lay delegates; one delegate for every 18 ministers 
and one for every 2116 members, 10 delegates for the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 61 

10,669 (clerical and lay members), or one delegate for 
every 1067 members. Thus these five Conferences 
had more than double the ratio as to ministerial dele- 
gates and nearly double as to lay delegates, and nearly 
four times the representation of the average of both 
ministry and laity. 

Fourth : The absolute injustice in the inequality of 
representation will be more evident when a comparison 
is made with some of the larger and older Conferences. 

The twenty-four Conferences, as stated, with 772 
ministers and 69,371 members (total 70,143), had 48 



delegates. 






Ministers. Members. 






The Central Penna. Conf. has 209 36,908 






" South Kansas " " 95 12,203 






" Erie " " 192 20,202 






496 69,313 






These 496 ministers and 69,313 members, together 






69,809, had 


16 


delegates, 


Ministers. Members. 






The East Ohio Conf. has 249 44,287 






" North Ohio " " 169 23,268 






418 67,555 






These 418 ministers and 67,555 members, together 






67,973, had 


14 


« 


Ministers. Members. 






The Philadelphia Conf. has 259 45,976 






" New York East " " 248 45,181 






" Central German " " 118 12,326 






625 103,483 






These 625 ministers and 103,483 members, together 






104,108, had 


19 


a 




49 


u 



These figures show that the twenty-four Conferences, 
with 772 ministers and 69,371 members, making a total 

6 



62 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

of 70,143, have within one of as many delegates to the 
General Conference as the eight Conferences named, 
with 1539 ministers and 240,351 members, making a 
total of 241,890; that is, with double the number of 
ministers and nearly four times the membership. This 
means that a native minister of Italy, India, China, 
Norway, Liberia, and of a colored home Conference 
has twice the voting power of the most enlightened and 
best men of any of the above Conferences, and that a 
native member of the church in Italy, India, Norway, 
Liberia, or one of the most ignorant in a Southern 
church, has nearly four times the voting power of the 
best layman of any of the Conferences named. 

If the representation of these twenty-four Con- 
ferences had been based on the ratio of the eight they 
would have had but fourteen delegates, a difference of 
thirty-four. 

Fifth : Nine of the foreign Conferences, with 21,577 
members and ministers, had 18 delegates. 

The Newark Conference with 34,550 members and ministers, 

The New Jersey Conference with 35,346 " " " 

The Central Pennsylvania Conference with 36,908 " " * 

Total, 106,804, had 18 delegates. 

The New York East Conference with 45,181 members and ministers, 

The Indiana Conference with 29,808 " " " 

The South East Indiana Conference with 25,632 " " " 



Total, 100,621, had 18 delegates. 



This statement shows that each member and minister 
in each one of these foreign mission Conferences had 
five times the representative influence in the General 
Conference that any member of the above-named Con- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 63 

ferences had. If the representation was in proportion 
to members, these nine Conferences would not have had 
exceeding four (4) delegates in place of eighteen (18). 

Sixth : Take the whole membership, including minis- 
ters, at 1,597,212, and delegates at 430 (Discipline, 
1884), and each delegate would represent 3715 mem- 
bors, or one lay and one clerical delegate to represent 
7430 members. 

There are thirty-seven Conferences with less than 7430 
members each, making an aggregate of 141,313 mem- 
bers. These Conferences have 86 delegates (43 clerical 
and 43 lay) ; each delegate representing 1644 members, 
or two delegates 3288 members. This leaves sixty-three 
Conferences having 1,455,899 members with 344 dele- 
gates (222 clerical and 122 lay), so that each delegate 
represents 4232 members, or two delegates 8464 mem- 
bers. This means that every member of the church in 
the thirty-seven Conferences (composed, in addition to 
the twenty-four foreign Conferences above noted, of 
all the weak white Conferences in the West and North- 
west) has over two and a half times more represen- 
tative power in the General Conference than a mem- 
ber of the older Conferences. If the representation 
of these thirty-seven Conferences was based on 4232 
members, as it is in the sixty-three Conferences, their 
number of delegates would be 33, showing that they 
have 56 delegates in excess of a fair proportion. The 
excess of 56 delegates over and above an equal ratio 
is so large as to be wrong in principle, subversive 
of every idea of equal powers, and dangerous in its 
results. 



64 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

It must be remembered that these differences in rep- 
resentation are not in favor of the larger and older 
Conferences, embracing the conservative as well as the 
progressive element, and including the numbers, intel- 
ligence, influence, and wealth of the church ; nor in 
favor of the membership from which the support of 
the thirty-seven (37) Conferences is drawn, for, as 
already written, these are principally mission, foreign, 
and colored Conferences. In the face of these facts 
the General Conference has sent down to the Annual 
Conferences a proposed change in the Discipline, re- 
taining and confirming this inequality by giving each 
Conference at least one ministerial and one lay delegate. 
The laity cannot too carefully examine into the results of 
such inequality and injustice. It is giving those least 
competent to judge the controlling power in the church. 
The fifty-six votes in excess of fair representation will 
decide any closely-contested question. They decided 
the election of at least two of the bishops and most of 
the officers chosen at the last General Conference. They 
can determine the policy of the church and change its 
laws. 

Would any thoughtful and prudent statesman place 
such a power in the hands of a few ? Would he give 
such power to the parties least in interest and least 
competent to make proper use of it? Would he not 
rather strengthen the power of the permanent and tried 
majority, of those who contribute the most, and on 
whom the church must depend for its efficient work ? 
Such a policy as that now adopted in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church is at variance with the practice of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 65 

all church bodies and of all civil governments. It is 
destructive of " all equality of right, equality of bur- 
dens, equality of powers, equality of privileges/' that 
belong to all men in the church of God, as well as 
under the laws of constitutional governments. It is 
destructive of government. 

Why should not the present law be changed and a 
just representation be secured to all ? It is answered 
by some, and the plea was made in the last General 
Conference, that each Annual Conference is entitled to 
representation (lay and clerical) in the General Con- 
ference, and the composition of the United States 
Senate is appealed to as a conclusive argument. The 
first argument embraces one of the dangers to the 
church in the future, and will be hereinafter more fully 
discussed. The second argument of the analogy with 
the general government will not hold. That govern- 
ment is based on a union of independent States ; their 
life is perpetual, their limits and boundaries are fixed. 
The general government cannot lessen the senatorial 
representation by change of State lines. The equal 
representation of the States in the Senate of the United 
States was, as is well known, a compromise to secure 
the union of the States. It works unequally and un- 
justly, but it is one of the inequalities in representation 
that must be accepted. The influence of time in the 
settlement of the country and the creation of new States 
tends to reduce its irregularity and injustice. On the 
other side, the Annual Conferences are the creation of 
the General Conference. Their legal life is but four 
years ; at the end of that time their boundaries may 
e 6* 



66 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

be changed, they may be divided up and passed over 
to other Conferences, their existence and names may be 
extinguished. While Annual Conferences exist as part 
of the organization, yet there is no one Conference that 
has continuous life. Wherein, then, is there any ground 
of comparison with the principle of representation in 
the Senate of the United States ? There is none. The 
Annual Conference is but a convenient, practicable ar- 
rangement for the transaction of part of the business 
of the General Conference representing the church. It 
is one of the striking examples of the executive wisdom 
of our fathers. There is, therefore, no justification for the 
unequal representation that is now the law of the church. 
Finally, as to the right of representation by Confer- 
ences. It is asked in what sense are the delegates elected 
by the Annual Conferences representatives. Whom do 
they represent? In a legal sense they represent the 
ministers of the church as a whole, not those of a Con- 
ference. Theoretically, they represent the church. The 
election of the representatives by the Annual Confer- 
ences is but a convenient and practicable method of 
securing members of the General Conference. It has 
the same force as if the law made it the duty of every 
forty-five ministers in the church to meet and elect one 
of their number a delegate. It has nothing to do with 
any original or legal right of an Annual Conference to 
representation, and therefore there can be no claim, as 
a right, from any Annual Conference as such for rep- 
resentation in the General Conference. This exact 
status of the relation of the Annual to the General 
Conference should be understood by the church. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 67 

The same interpretation of the law holds good as to 
lay representation, with the important qualification that 
lay delegates represent the church, not the members of 
a Conference ; that they, unlike the ministry, have the 
inherent right to representation, because they form the 
body of the church. 

Further, the whole number of members, including 
the ministers, would give a more just basis for both lay 
and clerical representation in the General Conference 
than as it now is. This change would bring the repre- 
sentation a step nearer the true basis. It would look 
more like making the ministry, in a limited sense it is 
true, representatives of the membership. It would, at 
least, remove one of the evidences of the ministerial 
control of the church, as by the present law the num- 
ber of the members forms no part of the basis on which 
the number of ministerial representatives is fixed. If 
this argument on the basis of representation is accepted, 
the adjustment of the number of delegates can be as 
readily made as in the present plan, with the exception 
that some way would have to be devised by which 
smaller Conferences and the lay conventions could 
unite in selection of their delegates. 

If the Methodist Episcopal Church is to be the 
church of the people and not of the ministry, and if 
the representation of the ministry is to be continued, 
then the wisdom of basing the representation of both 
orders on the number of the membership must be con- 
ceded. 

In connection with this subject of representation in 
the General Conference, it may be found necessary to 



68 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

undo the action of the General Conference of 1868, by 
which mission and foreign and colored Conferences 
were admitted on an equality with the other Annual 
Conferences into the General Conference. The next 
General Conference will have to look carefully at the 
influence which the representation of the colored and 
mixed Conferences, and of the foreign Conferences, has 
had and may have on her welfare. It may be found that 
there was too great haste in 1868, that the expectations 
of those who urged and carried this change have not 
only not been realized, but that the change threatens 
injury to the church. The influence of the representa- 
tives of the colored and mixed Conferences will be 
hereinafter considered. 

The question of the influence of the full representa- 
tion of foreign Conferences brings up that of so-called 
oecumenical Methodism. It is not proposed to discuss 
it any further than to suggest in advance the doubt- 
fulness of the policy of admitting into the General 
Conference representatives from foreign Conferences, 
whether they may have been or are missionaries or are 
native converts, for the practical reason that while the 
doctrines of the church and the general principles of 
its organization may be and are suited to all peoples, 
yet there will and must be variation in details and in 
their application to the peculiarities and wants of each 
distinct nation. These variations will increase and will 
be developed in the growth of the church in such na- 
tions, and will ultimately assume a form of Methodism 
adapted to their circumstances and wants. As the wants 
of the members in foreign countries are brought before 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 69 

the General Conference through their representatives, 
these will be found to vary as they represent different 
peoples, and the legislation that may be asked for may 
be contrary to the wishes and interests of our own 
people. Such differences will practically unfit the rep- 
resentatives of foreign Conferences to legislate intelli- 
gently for the church in this country, and thus an 
incipient antagonism of interest and difference of 
opinion will be introduced into our councils. It is 
unwise to attempt the enforcement of any rigid form 
of church government on the membership in different 
countries. There must be an elasticity that will suit 
different conditions of the people. That these sugges- 
tions are not without force is proven by the fact that 
in the last General Conference there were nine foreign 
Conferences represented by eighteen delegates, and 
many of them able and influential men. 

The conception of a Methodism which is to be world- 
wide is a beautiful and inspiring thought when properly 
construed. There is in Methodism, as has been said, a 
spirit, or a certain something, which is the product of 
its doctrinal teachings, its usages, its organization, and 
of its people, that may be transplanted with the church 
into all lands, and that will bear good fruit. But the 
expectation that the organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church can be profitably extended to em- 
brace its adherents in all countries, without regard to 
numbers abroad or at home, will meet with disappoint- 
ment. There is a limit to the power of all human gov- 
ernments; the leaders who have tried to make the 
peoples of various nations adopt their customs and 



70 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

laws, and become like their conquerors, have always 
failed. The same is true of the church : any such 
attempt of a successful church will break down by 
reason of its overgrown proportions at home, of its in- 
ability to harmonize the peculiar wants of all peoples 
by any human devices, and because its success among 
such peoples will most certainly induce independent 
action on their part. 

The Roman Catholic Church is the most prominent 
instance of success in propagandise that the world has 
seen. It has had all the benefits of a history com- 
mencing shortly after the death of Christ ; it has been 
part of the political and religious history of the world ; 
it is founded on certain leading laws of man's nature ; 
it too has a spirit, a something, that characterizes it 
wherever met with in the world. Its power of existence 
has been largely due to its political influence over its 
adherents; to this fact the governments of the world 
have had to give heed; yet with all its advantages, 
while the supremacy of the Pope as the head of the 
church is accepted, it is forced to assume certain char- 
acteristics of the mind, thought, and habits of the people 
of each country. But the power held by this church 
cannot and should not be repeated. 

There cannot be a question that, with the growth of 
Methodism abroad, there will be developed a conviction 
that in many respects its polity cannot in justice to the 
home interests of the mother-church be changed to suit 
the needs of the churches in foreign lands. This feeling, 
with one of self-reliance, with the worthy ambition of 
native leaders, and the decided objection of all govern- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 71 

ments to the religious control of their people by foreign 
organizations, will, as rapidly as can be, cause these 
bodies to organize on their own basis and produce a 
Methodism suited to their circumstances and conditions. 
In place, then, of the Methodist Episcopal Church being 
spread over all the world, the time will come when 
there will be a Methodism of Japan, of China, of India, 
of Africa, of Germany, of Switzerland, of Sweden, of 
Denmark, of Mexico, of South America, and of all 
countries where our church may have had its greatest 
successes. 

The same law will work at home, and as the member- 
ship increases it will meet a less migratory people, and 
as the people hold on to their homes there will be devel- 
oped more striking differences among them in different 
parts of this country. So in time these differences will 
furnish a basis for different branches of the church. 
These may be founded on nationalities, on races ; they 
may be the effect of climate, of employment, of trade. 
Indeed, there are many influences which will in the fu- 
ture mark most distinctively the inhabitants of different 
parts of this country ; and yet with all these differences 
at home and abroad, and with the peculiar character of 
the churches that will arise, they will all have the dis- 
tinctive spirit of Methodism, they will bear its features 
so strongly that they may not be mistaken. They will 
be children of one family, having a common lineage, and 
be partakers of the same inheritance. In this glorious 
future of the church there is cause for increased effort, 
for broad statesmanship, for a clear recognition of the 
object to be gained, and great care is needed that its work 



72 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

shall not be impeded or degraded either by unworthy 
ambition or by a narrow and defective policy. 

A fair inference from this discussion is, that the 
policy of the church should not have been changed, as 
it was by the General Conference of 1868, in admitting 
the delegates of the foreign mission Conferences to the 
full rights of the representatives of the home Confer- 
ences. Their rights could be fully protected and their 
interests cared for by the presence of their delegates in 
the General Conference, with power to vote on ques- 
tions affecting their mission work. A return to the 
policy of the church up to 1868 may prove to be the 
safest course, in view of the hastiness of the change 
made in 1868 and its results. 

WHO SHOULD BE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CON- 
FERENCE ? 

This is an important question. On a proper con- 
struction of that body depends the future of the church. 
To answer the question wisely would require a careful 
consideration of many points, some of which will be 
here discussed. It may be superfluous to say that the 
great aim in the selection of delegates should be to se- 
cure the men in both orders most noted for their intelli- 
gence, sound judgment, practical piety, and for their love 
of the church, its doctrines and usages. To secure such 
representatives, and to prevent the exercise of too great 
personal and official influence in the body, are problems 
in the state as well as in the church ; various precau- 
tions have been made by both to meet the difficulty. 
The only provision against official influence in the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 73 

Methodist Episcopal Church is relative to the bishops, 
whose power in the General Conference is limited to 
presiding, without the right to take part in debate or 
to vote. 

It may be that further guards should be placed 
around the General Conference to secure safety in its 
legislation. It may be necessary to prevent classes of 
men from being representatives who would naturally 
be influenced by the desire for office in the church, — 
for its honors or its emoluments, or for both, — or in 
whom there may be, from their position, a natural de- 
sire to control legislation or the elections, or to assume 
a self-assigned leadership, or who may be exposed to the 
temptation to make combinations among the delegates 
to secure their objects. Too much care cannot be used. 

The dangers connected with this subject of represen- 
tation may be further exemplified by considering two 
questions : First : Who should be eligible as ministerial 
representatives? One requisite will be conceded by 
all : they should be ministers engaged in full work. 
The second may not be so acceptable : the right of 
being a delegate should be limited to the travelling 
and effective ministers. They do the chief work of 
the ministry in the church ; they are brought into di- 
rect contact with the members and the people of the 
country; they are constantly testing the adaptation 
of the organization to the wants of the church ; they 
understand most thoroughly its workings; they bear 
the drawbacks and make the sacrifices which are 
part of the lot of a Methodist preacher; these men 
compose the ministerial army on which much of the 



74 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

growth and usefulness of the church depends. This 
army may require officers, but such officers should be 
so closely allied to the rank and file as to sympathize 
in their labors and privations, as well as in their suc- 
cesses. The connection must be most intimate. One 
reason for the success of the German army in the 
recent war with France is attributable to the fact that 
the officers and men of each division were taken from 
the same district of country and were not separated. 
They had a common bond in their home associations 
and folk-songs, as well as in their national pride. The 
result, then, of the position and work of the travelling 
ministers is that they are the better fitted to deliberate 
on all questions of changes, and as a sequence, that 
they are better prepared for the performance of their 
duties as representatives than other ministers can be 
who have not had the same preparation. 

Having shown what class of the ministers are the best 
fitted for representatives in the General Conference, 
the examination of this question might be closed, but 
it may be better to proceed and give reasons why cer- 
tain other classes of ministers should be excluded from 
being representatives in the General Conference. 

The question will be asked, Who are comprised in 
these words " The travelling and effective ministry" ? 
There will be no question as to including in this num- 
ber those who, in the Annual Conferences, yearly re- 
ceive their appointments as presiding elders or as 
preachers on a circuit, or are assigned to stations or to 
missions. It would exclude all others. The classes of 
the ministry that would be thus excluded are, — 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 75 

First : All superannuated and supernumerary 
preachers attached to an Annual Conference. 

Second : The secretaries of the Missionary, Church 
Extension, Freedmen's Aid, Education, Tract, and 
Sunday-School Boards, who are elected by the General 
Conference, and all appointees of the Annual Confer- 
ences other than the regular travelling ministers. 

Third : The editors of the official papers and pub- 
lications of the church, with the agents of the Book- 
Rooms. 

Fourth : All educators (except professors in the 
Theological Seminaries), agents of societies, whether 
under the supervision of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church or not. 

Some of the reasons for such exclusion may be given, 
as follows : The work of these excluded classes sepa- 
rates them from the inner and active life of the church ; 
their work is general, and they lose their identity with 
the local churches; their home influence is decreased, 
while their general influence may be increased. These 
results multiply with their years of separation from 
the pastorate; they lose their adaptation to the work 
of pastors, and as a consequence rarely return to it. 
Official life is antagonistic to the chief business of a 
Methodist minister; it is not conducive to his spiritual 
growth, for want of the food the active work supplies 
in the regular preaching of the gospel, and in saving 
and guiding immortal souls. The admixture of the 
management of monetary matters with official duties 
generally decreases fervor and pulpit power, — in fine, 
official preachers lose many of the characteristics which 



76 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

so eminently fit the travelling ministry for the position 
of legislators of the church. 

To exclude all the superannuated and supernumerary 
preachers as a class may seem to be very harsh, heart- 
less, and unjust. To say that the brother who has 
served the church most faithfully for many years, and 
who holds a high and honored place in the affections of 
his brethren, shall not be a representative because of age 
or infirmity needs to be defended with very sound rea- 
sons. It is thought that these reasons may be found 
in the large number of ministers, who come under this 
class in the Annual Conferences, who are by common 
consent unworthy of and unfitted for being delegates, 
and in the safe general rule that they are not in the 
full and active work of the ministry, and therefore 
have no just claim to either the honor or duties of the 
Conference. The honors as well as the responsibilities 
belong fairly to those who bear the burdens. 

The thoughtful among these brethren, and those who 
value the good of the church above their own interests, 
will accept the result ; they know that special provision 
cannot be made for special cases, and that every human 
law bears harshly on some one. Then, too, they know 
that the right of being a delegate is of little value, for 
the younger and more energetic push their elders aside. 
They must recognize the fact that the progress of 
the church, as well as of the world, depends upon 
the younger men. There is one atom of comfort to 
these brethren, in that there may come a time when 
the laity can purge the lists of Conference members, 
and then the right of being a representative may be 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 77 

in some way restored to the most worthy, as a mark of 
honor. 

The objection to a membership in a General Confer- 
ence of the ministers of the second class is, of course, 
not to the brethren who now or who may hereafter 
hold these places, but it arises from their dual position 
as members of the body and as officials of the body, an 
incongruity in its very nature. 

The presence of these officials in the General Confer- 
ence has been defended by reference to the custom pre- 
vailing in the Parliaments, Assemblies, and Reichstags 
of the limited monarchies of the Old World, where the 
members of a ministry have a place ; in some they have 
the right of membership by virtue of their office, and 
in others, as in England, they must be first elected by 
the people to the House of Commons. The parallel 
will not hold good. . In the General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church the officials represent no 
crowned head, no aristocracy, no party ; they prepare 
no measures of legislation by virtue of their office, and 
are not subject to a forced resignation by the will of a 
majority of the Conference. As delegates representing 
an Annual Conference they are on an equality with 
their fellow-members. The objection to their presence 
as members in the General Conference arises from the 
dangers that may result to the church from the undue 
use of their official influence. 

If necessary, it would be an easy task to show 
wherein the presence of officials in representative bodies 
is regarded as an element of power in the hands of 
kings and emperors, and where, in more advanced con- 



78 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

stitutional governments, great care is taken to protect 
the people from the dangers arising from such presence. 

The example of our own government furnishes what 
to loyal citizens should be a conclusive argument on 
this point, in the exclusion of the cabinet from member- 
ship in either the House or Senate of the United States. 

As a general statement, the dangers to which a state 
or church is exposed by the presence of its official mem- 
bers in its legislative bodies are due to their greater 
personal influence ; to the temptation to assume leader- 
ship, to control legislation, and to place their supporters 
in the various offices ; to the fact that they act as 
judges of the performance of their official duties, and 
desire to perpetuate their power by securing a re-elec- 
tion. Human nature is much the same everywhere, 
and where no moral question is involved, the tempta- 
tion to secure power, to retain and use it, is too much 
for the average of mankind to resist. But few men 
can use power successfully: it upsets their judgment, 
and great harm may be done before even the misuse of 
power by a bad or imprudent man can be corrected. 
The general acquaintance with and knowledge of the 
leading men in the different Conferences, through their 
official relations, gives a great advantage to ambitious 
officials in the Methodist Episcopal Church for the 
carrying out of their plans. They can form combina- 
tions and produce results without exposing themselves ; 
they can make men and put them down, and they can 
prevent or hinder any undesirable inquiry into their 
official work ; they never combine against the perpetua- 
tion of their own influence. The injurious and demoral- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 79 

izing tendencies of this list of probabilities can scarcely 
be overestimated. Selfishness and deceit seem to be ne- 
cessary qualities of a great leader, and are as apt to be 
developed in leaders of churches as of civil governments. 
These dangers are inherent in the presence of officials 
in all corporations, societies, associations, churches, and 
civil governments ; the most that can be done is to limit 
as far as possible their production. Our national gov- 
ernment has excluded the cabinet of the President from 
its halls of legislation as a protective measure. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church should follow the wise 
example ; where there is no temptation there is no sin. 

It might even be intimated that the majority of de- 
liberative bodies would feel relieved by the absence of 
the office-holders. They might feel that there was a 
fairer chance to get at the opinions and judgment of 
less aggressive and more modest men, and that impor- 
tant questions could be more fully and freely discussed. 
The seemingly inseparable union between officials and 
attempted leadership of representative bodies does not 
always tend to produce the best results. 

The loss of the knowledge and counsel of these 
brethren that the General Conference may sustain by 
their exclusion might be partially made up by a pro- 
vision that such representatives may have the right to 
a place on the floor of the house or on the platform to 
give such information as the Conference may desire as 
to the work of their respective boards. 

The objection to the presence of members of the 
third and fourth classes is simply that they are not 
doing purely ministerial work, and all the objections 



80 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

that apply to the other classes are applicable to them. 
To be thus ostracised may seem hard, but these breth- 
ren are not forced to accept such places ; it is their 
voluntary act. They need not be put in this position 
if they follow their proper calling ; and if the church 
deems it to its interest that the lines of member- 
ship in General Conferences shall be closely drawn, 
they cannot reasonably object. There is force in the 
suggestion that their work can be as well done by lay- 
men. How much this amounts to will be more fully 
explained in a future reference to certain offices ; but 
the principle should be established in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church that nothing but the pure work of 
the ministry in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
as an exclusive life-work, should entitle any one to full 
relations with the Conferences. There is great danger 
to the church in so extending the range of what may 
be designated as proper ministerial work as to degrade 
the call to the ministry. In an earlier day there was 
a necessity for much of this divergence from the proper 
work of a minister ; but it is now the duty of the 
church to limit such divergences as rapidly as the 
necessity ceases to exist. The distinct declaration by 
the church that the most honored men in the ministry 
are those engaged in the pastorate, and that its highest 
office (the place of bishop) was to be limited to such 
pastors, would do much to restrain the eager thirst for 
the highest, as well as for the subordinate, places. 

A single suggestion remains to be named under this 
head, — namely, that much of the danger to which the 
church is exposed by the presence of officials in its 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 81 

highest council would be prevented by a law declaring 
the members of a General Conference ineligible to any 
official position in the church. The working of such 
a law would be easy to foretell ; it would do much to 
prevent the electioneering and bargaining that is now 
done in the Annual and General Conferences. 

In conclusion, it may be said that by such exclusion 
the church would deprive itself of the benefit of the 
counsel of many of its best minds and influential 
leaders. This may be, but the church will feel very 
thankful to its Great Head that He has provided so 
many men of this description that the absence of a 
dozen or twenty of them from the General Conference 
floor cannot seriously affect the required sum total of 
wisdom and piety. Their absence will develop many 
others through their increased responsibility and their 
freedom from official assumption of superior knowl- 
edge. 

These suggestions as to the proper constitution of the 
General Conference are based on two reasons : First, 
That the active and efficient travelling ministers are the 
best judges of the wants of the church ; and, Secondly, 
That the safety and purity of its chief council will be 
better conserved. But it is frankly acknowledged that 
in the present temper of the church such a radical 
change of policy is not practicable. There have been 
no restrictions of terms of membership in the Gen- 
eral Conference in the past, and whatever changes can 
be made in the line of reform and protection must be 
by gradual steps. The official posts have been sought 
for as the places of honor and influence, as stepping- 
/ 



82 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

stones to the episcopate. The educational interests 
of the church have had the care of some of the best 
and ablest ministers in the church : there has always 
existed a close connection between the ministry of all 
the churches and education, the church at large being 
the foster-mother of education. Ministers, distin- 
guished as representative men, have held editorial 
chairs, have served the country as secretaries of the 
American and other Bible Societies, and have even 
been willing to accept the office of Book Agents. 
Physical infirmity may have overtaken men in the 
early years of their service, and forced them, with 
other reasons, to leave the active work and accept 
office. That all these classes can be deprived of 
their present right of being elected as delegates to the 
General Conference is out of the question, however 
desirable it might be. The present transition going 
on between supplying the official places, w T here the edu- 
cation and functions of the ministry are not required, 
with ministers or with laymen is not sufficiently de- 
fined or accepted by the church. This w T ill come with 
time. Nor is the danger to the church, from the pres- 
ence in the General Conference of ministers holding 
official and elective places, so apparent to either order 
that such measures can be now adopted. Until the 
church thoroughly comprehends the fact of danger, its 
near presence, and the necessity of protecting itself 
even to the extent that has been herein demonstrated, 
it will be argued, with some force, that such a change 
would be regarded as casting discredit upon the lead- 
ing ministers of the church ; that such a discrediting 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 83 

of the ministry would cripple the energies and lessen 
the ambition of the young; that it would be equivalent 
to disparaging high acquirements ; that it would nar- 
row the work of the ministry; that the ministry could 
not succeed with a suspicion thus cast upon them, that 
they were not to be trusted to legislate for the church. 
The weak points in these arguments are readily seen. 
They are, in fact, but apologies for personal recognition 
and possible honor. 

As reforms to be successful must be gradual, with- 
out yielding the principle, and for prudential reasons, 
the recommendations may be modified by excluding 
from membership in the General Conference, First : 
The secretaries of the different boards, unless a future 
recommendation should be adopted that they be ap- 
pointed by the managers thereof. They would then 
be purely executive officers of the boards, while the 
present arrangement makes them the superior officers 
and the function of the managers advisory only. 
Secondly : The supernumerary and superannuated 
members of an Annual Conference, for reasons already 
stated. Thirdly : The editors and Book Agents who 
may be members of an Annual Conference. The same 
law should apply to the laity in the event of their be- 
coming secretaries, editors, or agents. 

THE LAITY OF THE CHURCH. 

Having answered the question of ministerial mem- 
bership in the General Conference, the inquiry naturally 
follows, " Who are the laity, and how should they be 
represented ?" 



84 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

The question ir Who compose the laity of the church ?" 
would seem to be answered by saying that the laity 
consists of all the members (male and female) of the 
church who are not members of an Annual Confer- 
ence. A moment's reflection, however, will show that 
this description places t>n the laity the load of carrying 
some who profess to be more than laymen. It includes 
the local preachers, and would also embrace all minis- 
ters who for a time might be excluded from the regular 
and effective ministry by reason of their semi-worldly 
occupations. The carrying of this extra load might 
prove a burden to the laity, as it might interfere, as 
the presence of local preachers in lay conventions has 
already done, with the free expression of the laymen 
in their choice of lay delegates. There might be some 
relief from this if all such ministers could be gathered 
into a third order' and given a kind of suspended ex- 
istence. But this is out of the question, and the laity 
will have meekly to bear their burdens and accept the 
description above given, that the term " laity" comprises 
all the members (male and female) of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church who are not members of an Annual 
Conference. From this body the delegates to the Gen- 
eral Conference must be selected. There should be a pro- 
vision that in the representation from a lay convention to 
a General Conference the ratio of local or other preach- 
ers shall not be more than one to three, four, five, or more 
of the laity, when there may be four, five, or more lay 
delegates elected. When there are less than three dele- 
gates, local or other preachers should not be chosen. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the colored 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 85 

Methodist Episcopal Church, found it necessary to in- 
troduce a limitation by making the proportion one to 
four. A reason for increasing such ratios in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church can be found in the action taken 
by the National Society of Local Preachers to secure 
their recognition by the Genera*l Conference as an inde- 
pendent body with quite large powers. 

Another important question is, Shall the delegates 
continue to meet in one or in two bodies? If equal 
representation is granted, and the delegates continue to 
meet as one body, the right to call for a separate vote 
should still be allowed either order. But there are 
many reasons that indicate the necessity of a separation, 
or some change that will avoid the dangers so plainly 
seen in the last General Conference, and that will secure 
positive advantages in the deliberations of the body, in 
the choice of bishops and officials, and in securing a 
conservative policy. 

In all advanced governments, the presence of two 
legislative bodies is an accepted necessity to secure 
proper legislation ; one of the bodies is generally com- 
posed of the immediate representatives of the people, 
the other body of members having hereditary rank, 
or of members holding their term of office for a length 
of time sufficient to pass through the life of any tem- 
porary excitement of the public mind. These arrange- 
ments secure careful legislation, save it from the influ- 
ence of an unduly excited public opinion, give confi- 
dence to the people that there has been no undue haste 
in such legislation, insure greater respect for the laws 
and for the law-making powers, strengthen the govern- 

8 



g(5 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

merit, and increase the well-being and well-doing of 
the people. The same reasoning is applicable to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The General Confer- 
ence has now become a large, important, and influ- 
ential body ; to it is intrusted the religious guidance 
of many people; it exercises an important influence on 
the welfare of the country. The church ought not, in 
view of its responsibility to God, to neglect any provis- 
ions in its organization that will increase its usefulness; 
secure the best legislation, the purest and best fitted 
bishops and officials, and the greatest conservatism in 
policy. 

The determination of the question of instituting two 
houses in the General Conference will depend on two 
points : First, The wisdom of the policy which has just 
been noticed; and, Second, The construction of these 
bodies. In the Episcopal Church, which is the only 
church here with two bodies, the Board of Bishops form 
one, and the representatives of the clergy and laity in 
equal numbers the other. The policy of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in providing that its bishops shall 
not take part in the legislation of the church was 
wise and conservative, and therefore precludes their 
being formed into one body. The separation, there- 
fore, must be between the clerical and lay delegates ; 
each forming one house, with some proper provis- 
ion as to their presiding officers. Such a division 
is almost imperative in view of the numbers of the 
representatives of both orders. The number of dele- 
gates to which the General Conference would now be 
entitled would be four hundred and thirty (Discipline, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 37 

1884). With a proper change in the law of represen- 
tation this should be composed of two hundred and 
fifteen members from each order, clerical and lay. 
This number is quite large enough for securing proper 
examination, sufficient discussion, and a wise conclusion 
as to any question. Neither body should be much 
larger, and they could not be less in number and give 
fair representation. It is submitted to the considera- 
tion of the church whether the same practical result 
would not be secured by the church in adopting the 
policy of two houses, that is gained by nations ; and 
whether it would not do much to avoid the evident 
dangers that were so apparent in the last General Con- 
ference, and which are incident to all such bodies. 

Another thought is worth consideration, viz. : that 
there is no necessity for the church meeting in General 
Conference every four years. Its laws are well settled, 
its Discipline requires but little change, its ritual is ac- 
ceptable, the doctrines are fixed. The details of organ- 
ization, the revision of the work of the church and of 
the bishops, the election of bishops, of the official sec- 
retaries, editors and publishers, form the main work 
of the Conference. These meetings of the General 
Conference are attended with heavy expense in money 
and in time. The entertainment of such a body in- 
volves a charge on the memberships that few places 
can meet. 

There is danger in the frequent assembling of legis- 
lators of every kind, unless there are matters of im- 
portance that demand consideration. Such subjects 
come up in the earlier and formative state of govern- 



88 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

merits and of the church; and when the wants and 
development of a country or of a church are rapid in 
their growth, they must - be met by legislation ; but 
neither of these reasons have much force at this time 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church. There are in all 
organizations either ambitious men who want to dis- 
tinguish themselves, or religious nihilists who would 
destroy where they cannot rule, and who are ever ready 
to introduce questions which do no good and therefore 
are injurious. 

The judgment of all prudent men in State manage- 
ment inclines to limit legislative sessions, either by a 
fixed number of days, by restricting pay, by making 
them biennial, or by combining both restrictions, as in 
the State of Pennsylvania. Would there not be safety 
in limiting the meeting of the General Conference to 
once in six years ? It would at least help to prevent 
many of the evils which have appeared in former Con- 
ferences and that were so potent in the last, and would 
give more time to test the efficiency and wisdom of 
changes that have been made. . Frequent changes in 
the laws of the state or church are always injurious. 

DEFECTS OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE AS A 
LEGISLATIVE BODY. 

That some protective changes are required in the 
constitution of the General Conference was made evi- 
dent in its last session. No one could carefully watch 
the proceedings in 1884 without noting that it was not 
in a high sense a deliberative body. The work in 
the committees may have been well and thoroughly 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 89 

done, but when their reports came up for consideration, 
the chief aim of the body seemed to be to allow the 
least possible time for their consideration, and the race 
was an equal one, between the presiding bishop and 
some member calling the previous question, as to which 
could the most quickly stop discussion. The proceed- 
ings seemed based on the idea that either the com- 
mittee's report should be adopted, or that all the mem- 
bers were so well informed as to need no light, or w T ere 
unwilling to receive any further information on the 
subject before them. The condensation of thought in 
many of the speeches only suggested the arguments and 
facts ; no room was left to show their application. A 
secretary of the Missionary Society was stopped by time 
when giving information on a point before the Con- 
ference which he alone could give, and which was in- 
dispensable in the formation of a proper judgment. 

Another evidence of the absence of proper care was 
seen in the reception of and action on recommendations 
of the Committee on Revisals. Those familiar with the 
course proposed changes in the Discipline take, under- 
stand how readily important changes in the law of the 
church may be made and adopted by the General Con- 
ference, without either the committee or the Confer- 
ence understanding the intention or the effect of such 
changes. This possibility is inherent in the methods 
pursued, and is not due to wilful inattention to duty. 
To this cause are to be attributed many of the changes 
that have to be made by each General Conference to 
harmonize former action. The absence of any prop- 
erly-arranged codification or intelligent digest of the 

8* 



90 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

laws of the church renders the necessity of greater 
care in making changes the more evident. The re- 
quired approval of two separate bodies would do much 
to correct this evil. The use of "the previous ques- 
tion" to stop discussion is a necessary form in all 
large deliberative or legislative bodies. It is the 
only protection that such bodies have against ob- 
structive tactics, whether of good or evil intent, but 
it is a dangerous power and should be cautiously used. 
The very fact of its constant use proves that there 
was a felt necessity to hurry through the business 
of the Conference in order that its session might not 
be unduly prolonged, the result being that the proper 
discussion of important questions was prevented to meet 
such lack of time, with its consequent unwise legislation. 
This haste was a serious defect in a body charged with 
the consideration and direction of such great interests. 
The General Conference is not singular in this respect. 
The same difficulty has been present in General Conven- 
tions of the Episcopal Church, and in General Assem- 
blies of the Presbyterian Church. It is inherent in all 
large representative bodies. It is said that deliberation 
in legislation in the House of Commons (the largest 
representative body in the world) is only possible 
through the continued absence of a large proportion of 
its members. Obstruction and imperfect legislation are 
natural outgrowths of all large deliberative bodies. 

Then, too, the action of the Conference was unreli- 
able; for the body was frequently carried away by the 
spread-eagleism of a Methodism turning somebody loose 
on the world, and that the world was the parish of Meth- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 9£ 

odist itinerants, etc. Questions, as well as elections, were 
carried by misplaced sympathy. There was evidently 
a great want of careful thought and examination of 
the fitness of the candidates for all the offices, from the 
highest to the lowest. Arguments were used in favor 
of some that were unworthy and improper, showing 
a defective comprehension of duty on the part of the 
delegates using such arguments. There was a want of 
that broad-minded thought that should have character- 
ized a body so important to the church and to the cause 
of Christ. 

In addition to the want of deliberation in the body, 
and its action through unbalanced enthusiasm and 
sympathy, there was the undoubted presence of bar- 
gaining in selection of some of the persons to fill the 
highest, as well as other official places. The charge 
was deliberately made on the floor of the Conference, 
indignantly denied, and yet proved to be true by the 
results. 

The members of the church were gratified with the 
result of the election for bishops in the Cincinnati 
Conference of 1880, and it was hoped the disgraceful 
scenes of the Brooklyn Conference of 1872 would not 
be repeated in 1884 ; but when three men were chosen 
from the West and one from the East to be bishops, it 
was no haphazard arrangement, and when two of the 
four had failed of an election by former Conferences 
and had been accepted as standing candidates for the 
office, it was evidently no chance vote that elected them. 
The very unanimity with which a successor was chosen 
and elected to fill the place of a Book Agent in Cincin- 



92 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

nati proved that bargaining and exchange of votes had 
been successful. How far the colored vote was manip- 
ulated to secure these results may yet be revealed. It 
is a misfortune for the men who were thus elected, 
whether they were parties to the agreements and com- 
binations or not, because it places them under a cloud 
and affects their acceptability to the church. And for 
the purpose of this argument it is of little importance 
how far such agreements and bargainings were success- 
ful in these and other instances ; the lesson to be learned 
from this and former experiences is, that no church can 
afford to have its highest places filled either by un- 
worthy men or by the tactics of the politician. The 
peculiar position of a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church before the church and country, standing, as he 
does, between the ministry and the laity, demands the 
implicit confidence of the church to make his adminis- 
tration, successful. The members must see to it that 
some plan be adopted which will do away with or 
lessen the dangers to which the General Conference is 
now exposed from the lack of deliberation, the momen- 
tary gush of sentimental sympathy in the wrong place, 
and combinations to secure the offices of the church. 
It is with a sad heart that such hard words are written, 
but the evils spoken of are so great and so apparent 
that it would be a wrong to omit a notice of them in 
an essay of this kind. 

These evils would be lessened by the presence of an 
equal number of laymen in the Conference, and yet 
more by the institution of separate houses. The busi- 
ness education of the laity prepares their minds to 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 93 

fairly consider questions, to weigh evidence, to judge 
of character, ability, and adaptation of men to perform 
any given work. They are not easily led away by en- 
thusiasm, sentimentality, or sympathy ; and as they are 
not candidates for the episcopate, and as the general 
officers of the church are generally ministers, the laity 
will have little of personal interest to influence them, 
and can the better decide who should be chosen for any 
place. They are the better judges of the fitness of min- 
isters to perform a given work. 

THE SELECTION OF OFFICIALS. 

Too great care cannot be taken to secure as bishops 
men who are the best suited for such a position by 
their physical condition, mental capacity, training, and 
acquirements; by their acceptability in the pulpit; by 
the possession of a judicial habit of mind ; by clear- 
ness and quickness of apprehension ; by knowledge of 
men and ability to read character; by tact in deal- 
ing with men under the trying circumstances that 
every Annual Conference produces; by warm sym- 
pathy, and by their acknowledged piety. A few 
errors in the choice of bishops would put a severe 
strain on the organization of the church ; unless they 
command its respect and confidence, they will affect its 
administration, its harmony and prosperity. The suc- 
cessful working of the itinerancy and the unification 
of the church largely depend on their wisdom and 
prudence. It must be evident to all who are ac- 
quainted with the usual means taken to select candi- 
dates for this office, and who have a lively remembrance 



94 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

of the elections by the General Conferences of 1872 
and 1884, that the church cannot risk her prosperity 
and usefulness by their continuation ; that some plan 
must be adopted which will require a general unanimity 
of sentiment to secure an election. The experience of 
1872 and 1884 certainly proves that a body constituted 
as those General Conferences were cannot make a wise 
selection of men for an office that carries with it such 
responsibilities, that requires such preparation and posi- 
tive qualities, and that is so intimately connected with 
the prosperity of the church. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church cannot afford to 
lower the standard of episcopal qualifications. There 
should even be more care taken in the selection of 
bishops than in the earlier days, because their duties 
are becoming more difficult to perform. The increasing 
numbers in both orders (clerical and lay), the increasing 
difficulty of securing a knowledge of the ministry, the 
wants of the people, the country, and the higher wants 
of the church, all tend to demand enlarged capacity of 
mind, judgment, prudence, and administrative ability 
in the occupants of the office. It is therefore im- 
portant to improve, by change of law, upon the present 
uncertain way of selecting men for that position, and 
this independently of all questions of bargain or other 
improper influences. There must be provision made 
that will give time to carefully examine into the fitness 
or unfitness of the men nominated. The propositions 
to require the lay and clerical delegates to meet apart 
during an election (if they are not organized into two 
separate bodies), and to require a certain proportion of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 95 

both — that is, more than a majority — to make an elec- 
tion, are therefore prudent, protective, and conservative. 
Other precautions may be taken ; too much care cannot 
be exercised. 

The question of the best method of selecting persons 
to fill the other offices in the church deserves further 
consideration. Three points are required to be well 
met: 

First : The competency of the person. 

Second : The establishment of a direct responsibility 
to the General Conference. 

Third : The avoidance of danger to the church from 
intrigue, bargain, or electioneering for an office. 

The present plan of electing secretaries, publishing- 
agents, and editors is defective in all these points. 
The election of officers by a mass-meeting of over four 
hundred delegates gives no security that the persons 
elected have any positive or peculiar fitness for their 
work. Such elections open the way to all the perils 
of intrigue and corruption. 

There is now no proper responsibility. The managers 
of the boards defend themselves for any mishap or 
defect by the fact that the secretaries are not of their 
choosing, the members of the General Conference that 
they are not the executive body, and the secretaries that 
either they had not proper support or they assumed 
that all they did was proper and all criticism unjust. 
The secretaries and agents, as now elected, are, in fact, 
the only responsible parties ; the managers are but ad- 
visers. This accounts for the tone of superiority as- 
sumed by some secretaries and agents over the boards. 



96 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

It has been suggested that the secretaries and agents 
could be better selected, and much of the danger from 
intrigue in the General Conference be avoided, by the 
appointment of a committee of its body to nominate to 
the Conference not less than two and not more than 
three persons for each office, from which the Conference 
may select. This would be a step in advance of the 
present method, but it fails in establishing proper re- 
sponsibility. In all well-managed bodies the execu- 
tive officers are appointed by the representatives of 
the owners or of parties interested ; this secures a di- 
rect line of responsibility. The executive officers are 
responsible to the managers or directors, and they in 
their turn are responsible to the proprietors or parties 
in interest. Such a common-sense principle should be 
adopted by the General Conference. It can be done, 
First : By the careful selection of the managers of the 
different boards and the Book Room Committee ; and, 
Second : By giving them the power to elect the secre- 
taries, Book Room agents, and editors; such selection 
being governed by the rule that effective travelling 
ministers should be selected when the duties of the 
office required ministerial education and the use of 
ministerial functions, and laymen when such duties were 
of a business nature. 

This plan would secure secretaries, agents, and editors 
better fitted for their places and with more assurance 
of success; it would place responsibility in the right 
place, and have a strong tendency to prevent the dan- 
gers described from strife for office. It would also be 
an inducement to men to give up their time wholly to 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 97 

their official duties, knowing that their services would 
be continued if they were faithful to their work, and 
that they would not be liable to be dropped at the end 
of every four years. It would also enable the managers 
to make changes in officers in case of their deficiency 
or inability to fill a place. A more intelligent and 
efficient working of all the church interests would be 
the result, and the church would be saved from scandal 
and from the dangers that threaten its usefulness at 
this point. 

There was an evident disposition in the last General 
Conference to attack the bishops, to overrule their rec- 
ommendations, and to lower their influence in the body 
for the purpose of producing certain changes in their 
relation to the church. These efforts will be more fully 
described hereinafter. The church has not much to 
be proud of in the proceedings of the last General Con- 
ference; the members may congratulate themselves, 
however, that much greater evils were prevented by 
the presence of the lay representatives; as in all other 
religious bodies, their conservatism was the saving in- 
fluence. 

The changes in the construction of the General Con- 
ference that this discussion has developed, as required 
for the well-being of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
are: 

First : Equal representation, clerical and lay. 

Second : Such representation to be based wholly on 
the number of members, without regard to the number 
of the ministers in an Annual Conference. 

Third : The readjustment of the relation of the mis- 
e g 9 



98 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

sion, foreign, and colored Conferences to the General 
Conference. 

Fourth : That only the effective travelling ministers 
shall be eligible as clerical representatives in General 
Conference, including educators, and excluding the 
superannuated, the supernumerary ministers, the sec- 
retaries of the different boards, the editors, and Book 
Agents. 

Fifth : That the choice of bishops shall be made 
from ministers who are not members of the General 
Conference, and that no member of a General Confer- 
ence shall be eligible to any official place in the church. 

Sixth : That the members of the General Conference 
shall be divided into two bodies, the one composed of 
the lay delegates, and the other of the clerical delegates, 
each body to be presided over as may be determined ; 
that all action by the Conference shall require the 
assent of a majority of both bodies, and that in elec- 
tions to the office of bishop care shall be taken to se- 
cure, by the requirement of some certain proportion of 
each body, the nearest practicable approach to unanimity 
of sentiment. As to committees and persons elected to 
offices, a majority vote of both orders should be required. 

Until these changes are made all elections should re- 
quire a majority of both orders, clerical and lay, the 
vote being taken by orders, meeting separately and 
apart from each other. 

Seventh: That the General Conference shall meet 
but once in six years. 

Eighth : That the secretaries of the Conference 
boards, the agents of the Book Concern, and all edi- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 99 

tors, shall be elected by the respective Board of Mana- 
gers and by the Book Committee. 

II. The Annual Conference. 

The next body in rank of importance in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church is the Annual Conference. Its 
construction and relation to the General Conference 
have been stated. The establishment of this body was 
another of those wise provisions for which the form of 
government of the Methodist Episcopal Church is so 
noted, and was admirably suited to the work of the 
earlier church, and equally consistent in its provisions 
with the views of the Fathers, that the church of God 
should be governed by the ministers. 

The Annual Conference meets yearly at some point 
in the district or country assigned to it by the next 
preceding General Conference. It is presided over by 
one of the bishops, whose decisions are subject to the 
right of an appeal to the next General Conference for 
its final decision. Its members are the ministers of the 
church within its borders. They are called travelling 
preachers in contradistinction to the local preachers. 
They are called effective preachers when they are able 
to accept appointments and perform the work required. 
When non-effective they are placed in the superannu- 
ated or supernumerary ranks, as the case may be. The 
ministers belong to the church at large ; they are at- 
tached to Conferences for the convenience of adminis- 
tration, and may be transferred from any one Confer- 
ence or district of country to another. Every effective 
minister is entitled, at the hands of the bishop presid- 



100 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ing, to an appointment to some charge every year, but 
to no charge for more than three successive years. The 
work done by him, his character and usefulness, are 
passed under review at every Annual Conference. The 
condition of the station or circuit to which he was at- 
tached is stated in open Conference, with the amount 
of contributions to the official societies and boards of 
the church. To render this very thorough examina- 
tion possible, and to provide for the careful supervision 
of the ministry and the different charges, and also to 
understand and meet, as far as possible, the religious 
wants of the country embraced within the bounds of 
the Conference, such Conference districts are divided 
up into two or more subdistricts, over which a minister, 
selected for his wisdom, experience, and godly charac- 
ter, is appointed by the presiding bishop every year, 
and may be reappointed for four successive years. 
He is called a presiding elder. It is the duty of the 
presiding elders, at each meeting of the Annual Con- 
ference, to give the bishop the benefit of their obser- 
vation and judgment upon the condition and wants 
of each station and circuit, the general religious con- 
dition and wants of the country embraced within their 
districts, and the appointments to be made. The bishop 
having the exclusive power of appointment, the posi- 
tion of the presiding elder is simply advisory. 

Such is the essence of the itinerancy, with its nicely- 
balanced system of adaptation and protection to the 
ministers and the church. Other points connected with 
it will be hereafter considered. 

The Annual Conferences, composed as has been 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 101 

stated, have the farther duty of the examination and 
reception of applicants for the ministry, and have the 
power to elect them to deacon's and elder's orders, to try 
them for breaches of the Discipline, whether in morals 
or in the execution of their duties ; to expel them, with 
a reserved right of appeal to the next General Con- 
ference; to locate and to grant them supernumerary or 
superannuated relations ; and also to restore them to the 
full work of the ministry, except in cases of expulsion. 
The Annual Conferences generally take cognizance of 
all societies connected with the interests of the church 
within its borders, such as missionary, Bible, tract, and 
benevolent societies, and they distribute the moneys 
raised for the support of the worn-out ministers, their 
widows and orphans. 

The above detail has been given that the further 
consideration of the organization and functions of such 
Conferences might be more clearly understood. It 
will have been noted that the assured life of any An- 
nual Conference lasts but four years, the General Con- 
ference establishing its metes and bounds at every 
quadrennial session ; that it has no autonomy in and 
of itself. Its boundaries may be enlarged, divided 
up into one, two, or more Conferences ; it may disap- 
pear, being sliced up like Poland, and its territory 
given to other Conferences; its name maybe changed or 
blotted out. It exists merely as a wise provision for per- 
forming certain executive work of the church, such as 
" the admission of preachers on trial and into full con- 
nection, the ordination of elders and deacons, the exam- 
ination of the characters of the ministers and preachers, 



102 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN TUE 

and the stationing of them all, as well as the manage- 
ment of the fund for the superannuated preachers," * 
its members having no rights arising from their con- 
nection with any specific Conference. What rights they 
may have are as provided for in the Discipline. They are 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church as the 
laity are; they are ministers in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church at large; have an equal power in the 
control of the sheep of the pasture, and are on an 
equality with their brethren ; they all have the right to 
a yearly appointment to some station, circuit, mission, 
and to such support as may be voluntarily given them 
by the people. The relation of the Annual Confer- 
ences to the General Conference, and of the rights of 
the ministers thereto, are important facts that deserve 
consideration. 

The Annual Conference has no power of originating 
questions touching the polity of the church or its 
administration. It has no power of legislation and 
cannot have. Its powers are strictly defined and grow 
out of its special work. No superior body can give 
power to an inferior body to legislate upon any points 
that are material to the interests of the superior body 
without at least the power of revisal before ultimate 
action is taken. This, in the case of an Annual Con- 
ference, is impracticable, as it can, at most, last but four 
years, its existence legally ending at the next General 
Conference, which would revise its legislation. Unless 
all power of primary legislation were given to the An- 

* Coke and Asbury on Discipline, 1796. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 103 

nual Conferences (they being constituted as a repre- 
sentative body for the purpose), and it were made the 
duty of the General Conference to pass on such legisla- 
tion, there can properly be no legislative powers con- 
nected with Annual Conferences. Such power would 
involve a radical reorganization of the polity of the 
church, for which there is no necessity. What the 
future wants of the church may require, when it has 
increased to three, four, or five times its present mem- 
bership, is a question that will be decided when the 
time comes. 

It follows, then, from the nature of the Annual Con- 
ferences and the object of their formation, that they have 
no right to representation in the General Conference as 
such ; the right is in the ministry as individuals. 

WHO SHOULD BE MEMBERS OF AN ANNUAL CONFER- 
ENCE. 

The original idea of membership of, or connection 
with, an Annual Conference was, that the preachers who 
were in the active work within the limits of each Confer- 
ence should meet together once a year, in order that the 
bishop might meet with them and assign them to their 
work. Time soon developed the necessity of creating 
superannuated and supernumerary relations, which was 
done, with a continuation of all rights and powers as 
ministers of the church. These relations continue to 
the present time. In considering who should be attached 
to an Annual Conference, a proper test would be the 
character of the work done by the individual preacher 
within the bounds of a Conference. 



104 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

The church may choose to continue in its clerical 
ranks all those who have been received and are„in good 
standing without regard to their employment, but may 
refuse to give all of them the right of membership in 
an Annual Conference, or may select to whom it will 
give such right. These positions are and should be 
recognized as distinct. Preachers may be refused the last 
relation, while they are given or continued in the former. 
With this distinction the terms of membership in an 
Annual Conference may be more readily fixed. The 
propriety of including as members in an Annual Con- 
ference the preachers who receive their regular yearly 
appointments to stations, circuits, and missions passes 
without query, for the Conference was instituted for 
their convenience and for this purpose. There are after 
these, three classes of work to which preachers in full 
connection with the Conferences have been yearly as- 
signed, and which do not come under the rules of the 
itinerancy : First, Presidents and professors in theological 
schools, universities, colleges, and other schools of learn- 
ing in connection with the church ; Secondly, Agents 
of Bible and other benevolent societies which are not 
under the control of the church ; and, Thirdly, Preachers 
who have been selected by the General Conference as 
secretaries of its benevolent boards. 

What relation should such preachers hold to the 
Conference? The evident test is, as stated, the char- 
acter of their work. The same reasons which would 
make it proper that professors in our theological schools 
and educators in our different institutions of learning 
should be eligible as delegates to the General Confer- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 1Q5 

ence would make them members of an Annual Confer- 
ence. The converse of this rule would not apply to 
the secretaries of the boards and official editors of the 
press of the church, who, while excluded from member- 
ship of the General Conference for prudential reasons 
which have been fully discussed, yet should retain their 
connection with an Annual Conference. The Secretary 
of the American Bible Society or of any State Bible 
organization, when a Methodist preacher, should retain 
his relation to an Annual Conference; this work is so 
important, so fundamental to the cause of the Christian 
religion, that its chief agents are entitled to special 
recognition. The Book Agents, and the secretaries and 
agents associated with societies outside the control of the 
General Conference have no just claim to membership 
in a Conference, because such membership is not re- 
quired for the performance of their duties. Then comes 
the class of ministers bearing the relation of super- 
annuates and supernumeraries. What possible claim 
can they have to membership, per se, in a Conference ? 
They may be made amenable to a Conference for the 
examination of their characters without being members 
thereof. These brethren who would be thus deprived of 
membership may still, as suggested, hold their clerical 
relation to the church at large, their exclusion from 
an Annual Conference being based on the fact that 
they have no proper relation as ministers to its busi- 
ness. Other and personal reasons will be hereafter 
given for such exclusion ; the one just stated is broad 
enough to justify such action. An objection to this 
suggestion will be made : that it deprives such men 



106 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

of all representation in the church councils. It does 
as ministers, but are these brethren any more worthy 
than the bishops of the church, who have no right of 
representation? But they have the advantage of the 
bishops in that they can accept their proper relation to 
the church as local preachers, when for any reason they 
fail to perform their full duty as efficient travelling 
preachers. By this change they may be elevated to an 
equality with their brethren and sisters, — the laity, — and 
thereby secure representation. If the church would 
clearly understand the proper work of an Annual Con- 
ference, the distinction between the relation of the 
preachers to it and their relation to the church, there 
would be little difficulty in arriving at a solution of 
some of the troublesome questions connected with those 
holding supernumerary and superannuated relations. 
A return to the original conception of an Annual Con- 
ference, with the recognition of the proper work of the 
ministers in it, would be a great deliverance from many 
evils that have for years been developing into impor- 
tance. 

LAY REPRESENTATIVES IN ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 

The propriety and policy of the membership in 
Annual Conferences being confined exclusively to the 
preachers has been frequently discussed. The General 
Conference of 1878 appointed a committee to report on 
a plan for introducing lay representation into such 
Conferences. The General Conferences of 1880 and 
1884, though plans were laid before them by the proper 
committee, yet refused to take any action to adopt the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 107 

same. Such refusal came, not from a want of under- 
standing the merits of the question nor from the lack of 
time, but from an opposition to the proposed measure. 

Such continued refusal to admit lay representatives 
into the Annual Conferences demands a careful inves- 
tigation of the arguments and reasons adduced on both 
sides of the question. 

It is acknowledged that such introduction would be 
a radical change in the theory and policy of the church 
as to the Annual Conferences ; that it is not essential to 
the mere administrative work of the Conference, that it 
can only be demanded on the principle of the recog- 
nition of the "priesthood of believers/' and on the 
broad grounds of increased security to the polity of 
the church, added care in the acceptance of candidates 
for the ministry, for the protection of the character of 
the ministers, of better provision for their support, of 
meeting the widening work of the church in its various 
fields of benevolence, and the constantly enlarging local 
interests of each Conference district. 

There has been a great increase in the number of 
interests that are brought under the care of the Annual 
Conferences. They open to the church new and varied 
fields of labor, and are a natural product of its religious 
teachings. The care of these interests was not antici- 
pated as part of the work of an Annual Conference. 
Yet as the Conference is the immediate representative 
body of the church in its district, these properly come 
under its oversight and are entitled to its protection. 

The decision of this question of the introduction of 
lay representatives in the Annual Conference thus de- 



108 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

pends on the influence such representation would have on 
all the interests just named. The course of an examina- 
tion of the proposed change is thus fairly marked out. 
The fundamental argument is in the rights of "the 
believers. 7 ' These rights have been defined in the 
principles already established of the proper constitu- 
tion of the General Conference, or of the government 
of any associated body of Christians. They are in- 
herent in the natural and scriptural right and duty of 
the members of Christ's body, to manage the interests 
of His church as a whole, or as a matter of greater 
convenience by representation from the whole body. 
These rights are superior to any polity, laws, customs, 
or habits of the church, and when necessity or prudence 
demand their exercise, such polity, laws, customs, or 
habits must yield. If these principles were accepted, 
the Annual Conference would be composed of repre- 
sentatives from all the stations and circuits, without 
regard to whether their duty might be to teach or to 
support the teachers. If this end were secured, all 
the work of the Conferences could be accomplished. 
But here, as in the case of the General Conference, 
comes in the force of old habits, established customs, 
usages, etc. ; and while the best form of organization 
cannot be had, the next best may in time be secured, 
viz. : the equal representation in numbers of the laity 
and the ministry, with equal power in every respect. 
This would be after the example of the Presbytery 
in the Presbyterian Churches, of the Convention in the 
Episcopal Churches, and of the Classis in the German 
Churches. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 109 

If this ratio of representation cannot be secured, it 
may be more prudent to secure the recognition of the 
principle, that at first some fixed number shall be 
selected by each district in the Conference, as was sug- 
gested by the report on this subject made to the General 
Conference of 1880. If this were done, such lay rep- 
resentatives should have the same rights and powers 
that are now given to the lay representatives in the 
General Conference. The objections to this reduced 
ratio of representation may have to be borne with for 
a time, until the increased intelligence and broadened 
views of the church, with the acknowledged good results 
of the presence of lay members, shall secure a change 
to the better basis of equality in numbers and direct 
representation. 

What objections can be made to this or the former 
plan ? Would they lessen the efficiency of the church ? 
Would any inherited rights be invaded ? Would they 
lessen the efficiency of the Annual Conferences ? Would 
either of them in any way interfere with carrying on 
the proper business of an Annual Conference ? Would 
not such introduction of laymen naturally aid in the 
transaction of its business and promote its usefulness? 

The objections made to the admittance of laymen into 
the Annual Conferences, with full and equal powers, 
have generally been, — 

First : That it would make the Conferences too large, 
and that they could not, as now, be accommodated in the 
cities, towns, and villages where their annual sessions 
may be held. 

Secondly : That the principal work of such a Con- 
10 



HO PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ference having reference to the admission, examination, 
and ordination of the ministry, passing of character, 
and the reception of their appointments, there is but 
little for the laity to do. 

Thirdly : That in many Conferences the laity serve 
on committees which consider and report upon many 
of the subjects that come up before the Conference. 

Fourthly: That ministers should not be tried by lay- 
men in an Annual Conference unless laymen are as liable 
to be tried by the ministry. 

Let us consider these objections. If the principle 
is correct that the laity, as of " the priesthood of be- 
lievers," should be admitted into the councils of the 
church : if the cause of Christ, the only object of the 
existence of a church, would be thereby promoted, 
then all objections as to numbers fail. But arrange- 
ments can be made to meet every need of the church. 
For instance, the adoption of the recommendation 
as to terms of membership in an Annual Conference 
would materially reduce its numbers. The people 
would be relieved from the accepted duty of enter- 
taining the long line of attached ministers in the form 
of superannuates, supernumeraries, etc. What occa- 
sion is there for the presence of the young men who 
are applicants for admission or examination? They 
could be represented as well absent as present ; the per- 
sonal examination of their faces and persons amounts 
to nothing, for the most unpromising-looking subjects 
have been admitted. The General Conference has not 
established any standard of physical beauty or size as 
the criterion to judge by; if there were anything in 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. \\\ 

this, it might more safely be left to a jury of the mothers 
in the church. The applicants for admission and the 
preachers on trial could be examined before the meeting 
of the Conference. The candidates for orders need 
only to be present on the day of ordination. The 
number of the members advances with the population 
of the cities, towns, and villages, and the increased 
numbers of an Annual Conference would thus find in- 
creased accommodation. The objection as to numbers 
will not bear examination. 

The second objection is based on the idea that the 
ministers are a separate order of human beings; that 
by being called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ 
they are thereby exalted above their brethren ; that they 
have by this call become the lords of Zion, and can 
only be criticised, examined, or tried by their peers, as 
they vainly term them. It is time such nonsense were 
driven out of the minds of Methodist ministers ; it is 
mortifying to the laity that such thoughts exist among 
men whom they delight to reverence, honor, love, and 
uphold. What is there in the call to preach that should 
separate them from their brethren? What does the 
call involve ? All that is included in it, by the teach- 
ing of the Scriptures as exemplified by Jesus Christ 
while on earth, is that the Holy Spirit may show to 
some persons that it is their duty to give up the ordi- 
nary occupations of life and devote themselves to preach- 
ing and teaching the gospel of the Son of God. As to 
other persons no communication is made, nor is needed, 
because the faithful performance of their duty to them- 
selves, their families, their country, and their God comes 



112 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

to them with their growth. This is their natural duty ; 
to give up the ordinary occupations of life and devote 
one's time to preaching Christ is a special duty. The 
laity are as fully performing their work in attending to 
the affairs of life as the ministers are in preaching the 
gospel. It is acknowledged with great pleasure that a 
call to preach is the highest honor that can be conferred 
on man ; but it imposes a duty, — it does not create any 
right or make any difference in the preacher's relation 
to his fellow- man. 

Every member of Christ's Church is the peer of 
every other member as to his rights and relation to the 
church, though there may be differences in every other 
respect. There is, therefore, no ground for the claim 
that the ministry should be under the jurisdiction of the 
ministers only. The laymen who would be sent to the 
Annual Conferences would be the equals of the ministers 
in intelligence, piety, and devotion to the church. Not 
one word will be written here that would in any wise 
tend to undervalue the character or the services of the 
ministers, nor will they be permitted to undervalue the 
laity by basing their rejection from the councils of the 
church on their ignorance, incapacity, lack of piety, or 
devotion to its interests. It is for the ministry to accept 
one or the other horns of the question. If they have 
faith in the laity of the church, and have gotten rid of 
priestly notions of superiority, then they will favor the 
introduction of lay representation into all the councils 
of the church. If they persist in refusing such intro- 
duction, the laity will be forced to the conclusion that 
every such minister is governed either by the notion of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. H3 

his superiority in the Church of God, or is not willing 
to trust the laity. 

The experience of other churches where the laymen 
unite with the ministers on terms of perfect equality, 
and help to determine all questions relating to admis- 
sion or ministerial relations, is an evidence in favor of 
such power being secured to the laity of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the Annual and General Confer- 
ences. The Methodist ministry are certainly of no 
higher grade than the ministry of other Christian 
churches. If there would be any difference in relative 
fitness, it would be in favor of making the laity the 
exclusive judges of ministerial character, for they are 
more deeply interested in the character, attainments, 
piety, and usefulness of the ministry. Then, too, they 
do not judge so harshly, they have no petty jeal- 
ousies, no snubbings or slights to remember; they are 
not in the way of the growth, rise, or increasing influ- 
ence of any one ; nor do they uncharitably criticise their 
brethren's addresses, sermons, or other efforts. They 
are free from many evils that affect the relations of 
ministers to each other; their judgment would be based 
on facts, and less on sympathy or unkind feeling; they 
know the young men who have gone out from among 
them, and follow them with a fatherly or motherly in- 
terest. 

The objection, then, to the laity exercising equal 
power in the Annual Conference so far as it may affect 
the ministry is unsound. True, it puts them on a par, 
for Conference purposes, with the laity ; this may not 
be pleasant, but it is Christ's plan. The presence of 
h 10* 



114 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

lay members in an Annual Conference would do much 
towards checking the disposition of the ministry to arro- 
gate to themselves power as a class, as a party, as a caste. 

There is much proper work for the laity to do in the 
Annual Conference, in carefully guarding the entrance 
to the ministry, in watching the development of the 
young men in pulpit ability, in their acceptability as 
pastors, and in piety ; in protecting the ministry and 
the church from men who have become unfitted for 
their high calling; in sympathizing with and encourag- 
ing those who may have made a misstep, through temp- 
tation, that they may be restored to their work. From 
such nearer relations to the ministry they could better 
understand their wants, sympathize with them in their 
trials, and rejoice with them in their successes. In very 
many ways the presence of the laity in the Annual 
Conferences would be a blessing to the church. 

The third objection, that the laity are now members 
of committees in some of the Annual Conferences, and 
that nothing would be gained by their presence as mem- 
bers, is a quibble, because it is evident to every one, and 
to no one more clearly than" to the ministers, that it is 
quite a different position to be on a committee without 
power even to advocate or to vote for its recom- 
mendations in the chief body, and to be a member of 
such a body with the right to originate and discuss 
questions; to have a potential voice and the full right 
of voting. The fact of the admission of laymen on 
committees in the Annual Conference is an acknowl- 
edgment of the strength of the argument in favor of 
their admission to the Conference as members. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. H5 

As the Conferences have immediate charge and over- 
sight of the benevolent societies, and of the educational 
institutions of the church within their limits, the im- 
portance of proper care of these interests cannot be 
overestimated. To bring these interests home to the 
members, the laity must assist in all action of the Con- 
ference referring thereto. There seems to be much diffi- 
culty in impressing on the minds of the ministers the fact 
that the laity have far more influence with each other 
than they (the ministers) have. Much of the ministers' 
work in such lines is perfunctorily done, as a matter 
of business, in the ways of their duty. When a lay- 
man takes an interest in such work, it is more as a 
matter of conviction. 

A fourth objection was made on the floor of the 
General Conference, and it may be well to expose it, as 
its seeming justice may influence some one. The ob- 
jection was, that it would be very unseemly for lay- 
men to try ministers, since ministers cannot try laymen. 
Here again is the essence of ministerial aristocracy, — 
the argument of " Touch me not, for I am holier than 
thou." The objection has two parts, — first, that there 
is no inherent right in the church (that is, " the body 
of believers") to try a minister, and, second, that if it 
is done there should be a quid pro quo. 

The doctrine of the relation of the ministry to the 
body of the church has been frequently stated in these 
pages ; the ministry are not a separate body, but are 
of the " body of believers." This " body of believers" 
(the church) has all the power in itself to regulate its 
members, and has the same power through its repre- 



11(3 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

sentatives. This " body" can adopt different ways of 
trying ministers, both preachers on trial, deacons and 
elders, and of trying members in full connection and 
on probation. To whomsoever the duty of trying is 
delegated, they stand in the position of the church, of 
the whole " body of believers." This is the principle 
adopted by all evangelical churches. The objection, 
then, is in harmony with the assumption of priestly 
exclusiveness, of priestly superiority, and of priestly 
power over the laity ; it is the argument of absolutists 
in church government. 

The quid pro quo argument is puerile, for, as a mat- 
ter of fact, the ministry have the laity under constant 
oversight, as provided for in the laws of the church, 
and that the church (" the body of believers") should 
provide that the ministry should be tried by a mixed 
jury of ministers and laymen is just as reasonable and 
consistent. 

But finally. The principle of the union of ministers 
and laymen in trying a preacher is already part of the 
law of the church, for by the constitution of the Gen- 
eral Conference, the bishops are judged by the minis- 
try and laity jointly. If, then, the highest ministers 
in the church are under this joint jurisdiction, what 
argument is left why other ministers should be ex- 
empted from such jurisdiction? Though a bishop may 
be tried for immorality by a court of ministers, his ap- 
peal goes to the General Conference for its ultimate 
determination. 

A further reason why the laity should be represented 
in the Annual Conferences will be found in the fact that, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. H7 

while they have to bear the burden of the support of 
the ministry, they should have a voice in determining 
the extent of that burden, and for whom it should be 
undertaken. As the law now stands, they are without 
power or influence at either of these points ; the min- 
istry may increase their numbers to any extent, and of 
any material ; the bishops must give appointments to 
those whom the Conferences elect; circuits must be di- 
vided up into weak churches to make places for them, 
and the laity must furnish them subsistence. As the 
law now stands, the laity as a body must accept as their 
Christian teachers any and every man the ministers 
choose to receive into the Conference; they have no 
power to prevent it. Is it any wonder, with this state- 
ment, that the bishops have so much difficulty in find- 
ing places for many of the ministers, and that there is 
so much of complaint as to support? The present 
power of the ministers in the Annual Conferences, in 
this respect, is too great ; the church requires lay rep- 
resentation in the Annual Conference to protect both 
ministers and the laity here. There has been, and there 
is now, too little care taken by the ministers in receiv- 
ing men into the Conferences ; there is, too, a great 
difference between bearing a burden and placing it on 
others. Every member knows how readily young men 
are persuaded by over-anxious mothers and friends to 
enter the ministry. The highest ambition of an Irish 
family is to have one of its sons in the priesthood. 
There is much of this feeling in Methodism. Every 
member also knows the influences that are brought to 
bear on Quarterly Conferences to recommend young 



118 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

men to the Annual Conferences, and how few of the 
ministers can face the loss of the kind entertainment, 
or personal attachment, by a vote against the acceptance 
of a son, or a brother, or of a friend of the family. 
Every member also knows that there is but little diffi- 
culty in squeezing the candidates through an Annual 
Conference Committee, receiving them on trial and in 
time electing them to deacon's orders, though they may 
have to agree to be transferred to another Conference. 
In an earlier day, when there was a great deuiand for 
preachers, the Conferences might have been justified in 
admitting into their close corporation young and mar- 
ried men who were not properly prepared, and who did 
not give promise of any special adaptation to the work. 
The case is different now. Each applicant should be 
closely examined, and only those admitted who after 
proper trial can reasonably be expected to show them- 
selves workmen worthy of their high calling. 

There is a point yet to be thought over, which in its 
full weight is probably of more importance to the safety 
of the church than any yet named. It is found in the 
fact that by the present law a change in any of the 
" Restrictive Rules," except the one relating to " Ar- 
ticles of Religion," can be made by the " concurrent 
recommendation of three-fourths of all the members 
of the several Annual Conferences, who shall be pres- 
ent and vote on such recommendation, followed by a 
majority of two-thirds of the General Conference suc- 
ceeding." It will be noticed that this law gives to the 
ministry absolute power over all the polity of the 
church ; they may strip the church of everything that 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. H9 

is special and peculiar to it, — its itinerancy, its class- 
meetings, its love-feasts, its Sunday-schools, its mission- 
ary and other boards; the whole framework of the 
church may be removed; the only thing they cannot 
destroy is its " Articles of Religion."* 

The object of submitting proposed changes in the 
"Restrictive Rules" to the Annual Conferences was 
evidently to use them as a ready way of getting an 
expression of opinion from the ministry. It might 
have been done otherwise, but the annual meetings of 
the Conferences afforded the benefit of discussion and 
an easier way of securing a vote. This is also evident 
from the law requiring the assent of a three-fourth 
majority of the members of all the Conferences, for 
by this condition, and in this way, a majority of three- 
fourths of the ministry is secured, f No argument in 
favor of the autonomy of the Annual Conference can 
be drawn from the submission to them of so important 
a matter as a change of the law of the church. 

These provisions, requiring the majorities as stated, 
are in the line of conservatism so far as the ministers 
are interested ; but while they are conservative as to the 
ministry, there is in them not one particle of protection 
for the church itself, — that is, for the members. The 
presence of the lay representatives in the General Con- 

* It is admitted that the lay vote in the General Conference is 
a check on the ministerial power. But unless taken as a separate 
vote, how slight the check is ! 

f The initiation of a change in the " Eestrictive Kules" can 
he made hy the ministers in the Annual Conferences, but not by 
the Annual Conferences as such. This distinction should be kept 
in mind. 



120 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ference as now organized affords but little protection, 
because they have no separate vote on changes in the 
" Restrictive Rules," but are merged into the whole 
body. It is but the plainest right that the laity should 
have a voice in the determination of the fundamental 
laws of the church. Why should the power to change 
and alter everything in Methodism, except its "Arti- 
cles of Religion/' be limited to the ministry? Why 
should a membership of nearly two millions be ex- 
cluded from every and all legalized expression of their 
opinions on proposed changes in the fundamental laws 
of the church ? 

The object of requiring such majorities of the Annual 
Conferences was conservative, and designed to secure a 
full vote of the ministry. Why should not a vote of 
the laity be included, and thereby evidence be given 
that the Methodist Episcopal Church is not a church 
of the ministry only, but of the people, as Christ in- 
tended ? Is not all good reason in favor of submitting 
any and all changes in the constitution of a church to 
the members thereof, either directly or indirectly, 
through their representatives? Are not changes in the 
constitutions of the States so submitted ? Is the mem- 
bership of the Methodist Episcopal Church less fitted 
to judge of the merits of changes in its laws than the 
people at large of a State to judge of important changes 
in State constitutions? There can be but one kind of 
answers to these questions. How, then, can such ex- 
pression of the laity be the most easily obtained? Ex- 
tend the practice of the church in getting an expression 
from the ministry so as to include the laity, then the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 121 

presence of the laymen in equal numbers in the Annual 
Conferences will afford a direct method of securing such 
an expression ; and further, a vote of three-fourths of 
the ministers present and of three-fourths of the lay 
representatives would probably express the opinion of 
the whole membership, including the ministry, as well 
as it can be obtained. 

With the laity properly represented in the Annual 
Conferences, the duties of such bodies would be per- 
formed with greater safety to the rights of the min- 
istry and membership and with increased efficiency. 
With equal representation in both the Annual and 
General Conferences, the general polity of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church would be reasonably assured 
by the presence of the conservatism needed in all delib- 
erative bodies. The propriety of the introduction of 
the laity into the Annual Conferences as a matter of 
their right and interest in the " Restrictive Rules" of 
the church cannot be questioned. 

An argument may be fairly drawn from the positive 
advantages connected with such introduction of the laity 
into the Annual Conferences. These can be generally 
stated. Certain dangers to be hereafter noted would be 
lessened, the church would be unified in its interests, 
its resources would be strengthened, its efforts would 
be enlarged, its piety would be increased, the ministry 
would be more trusted, respected, reverenced, and be 
better cared for. The ministers who oppose lay repre- 
sentation in the Annual Conferences make a great mis- 
take ; they stand in the way of their personal interests 
and in that of the progress of Christ's cause. 
F 11 



122 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

The proposed changes in the construction of the 
Annual Conference will then comprise: 

First : That until the conditions of membership of 
the Annual Conferences shall be changed, the right to 
vote shall be limited to the effective travelling preachers, 
including presiding elders, station and circuit and mis- 
sion preachers, secretaries of the official benevolent 
boards, ministers engaged as educators in colleges, 
universities, or schools under the patronage of one or 
more Annual Conferences, secretaries of the American 
Bible Society or of any State Bible Society, editors of 
the church papers, and professors and teachers in theo- 
logical schools. 

Second : That lay representatives shall be admitted 
in such numbers as may be determined from each dis- 
trict, who shall in all respects be the equals of the 
ministry in the sessions of the Conference ; this to in- 
clude the right to a vote on all questions affecting the 
ministry, including their admission, their advancement, 
trial, location, or the granting any other relation, and on 
changes in the "Restrictive Rules," and to a separate 
vote on the same basis as provided for in the General 
Conference. 

INCORPORATION OF ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 

In the line of legal provisions in the Discipline, by 
which the character of the Annual Conferences and 
their relation to the General Conference and the church 
have been changed, and whereby the balance of the 
organization between the clergy and the laity must be 
disturbed, if not altogether broken, is to be found a 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 123 

very significant and remarkable addition to the powers 
and duties of the Annual Conferences, as made by the 
General Conference of 1876. This provision heads the 
list in the legislation as to the Annual Conference, as 
follows (Discipline, 1884): 

" There are now one hundred and three Annual 
Conferences in the year, and these shall severally be- 
come bodies corporate, wherever practicable, under the 
authority of the law of the States and Territories 
within whose boundary they are located.' 7 

While it may be something to be grateful for, that 
there are now one hundred and three Annual Confer- 
ences in the church, yet this is evidently but a prefix 
to cover the more important fact that, by the latter 
part of the paragraph, it is made the duty of such 
Conferences to seek for corporate powers from the 
proper State and Territorial authorities. This act of 
the General Conference involves so much of danger to 
the church that it demands most careful consideration 
and exposure. 

The first question that is suggested is, Should An- 
nual Conferences be intrusted with corporate rights? 
It can scarcely be argued that ah inferior and subordi- 
nate body should be clothed with powers that the supe- 
rior body, its creator, has not given and could not give. 
The General Conference is not an incorporated body, 
nor is there any necessity that it should be for the per- 
formance of its duties. It has no property, it inherits 
no money, it carries on no business ; its expenses can be 
and are met by other means. 

The Annual Conference is, as has been described, a 



124 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

mere convenience of the church to carry out its work. 
It is wholly in the power of the General Conference ; 
all the Annual Conferences may be removed from the 
polity of the church and cease to have an existence. 
Now wherein is there any reason why such bodies 
should be clothed with corporate powers, by which 
they are placed beyond the control of the General 
Conference, powers too which are not required in the 
performance of their administrative duties? The next 
questions are, Can Annual Conferences receive corpor- 
ate powers? Are they fit subjects for such powers? 
The description already given of the authority by 
which they exist, and of the objects for which they 
exist, entirely precludes the idea of there being any 
fitness in bestowing such powers upon them. Cor- 
porate rights are only given to bodies that are to 
be permanent, that are controlled by the parties in- 
terested in them, or by managers duly selected. In 
every one of these conditions of fitness for corporate 
powers an Annual Conference fails. The requisite 
conditions arise from the relation to and contract with 
the State which grants the power. Corporate bodies 
are to be useful and of advantage to the public weal; 
they are to be subject to the control of the State, its 
taxing authority, and the processes of law. There 
must be responsibility connected with all corporations ; 
some person with whom the courts can deal. The 
Annual Conference has no stability; it is under the 
control of a body beyond the power of any State court ; 
its membership may be entirely changed at the end of 
any year, and its own existence at the end of every four 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 125 

years ; there is no responsibility connected with it. No 
State Legislature would grant any corporate authority 
to such a body if it understood its construction and re- 
lation to the church. 

It may be argued that charters are given to church 
societies, and that the principle is the same. In answer 
to this it may be said that one object in using societies 
for church work is to meet the demands of the State by 
having a responsible party to whom to give the powers 
asked for, and who shall be answerable to the State's 
laws and its taxing authority. This is one defective 
point, hereinafter stated, as to the legal position of the 
church boards. 

The next question to be asked is, What is to be the 
character of the powers asked for in a charter ? The 
law in the Discipline was either very ignorantly drawn 
or drawn with the intention of having hid away in it 
what politicians call a snake. The church law requires 
simply that the Conferences shall become bodies corpor- 
ate, leaving to each Conference to determine the char- 
acter of the work it is to do, and for which corporate 
powers are to be secured. For all the General Confer- 
ence can do after this general instruction, an Annual 
Conference may ask for corporate powers to run a 
distillery, to keep a gin palace, to build a railway, to 
run iron, cotton, or woollen factories, to publish news- 
papers filled with infidel teachings, to publish books in 
opposition to the Methodist Episcopal Church. There 
is no limit and no allusion to the objects of such charters. 
It is therefore not strange that no action has been taken 
on this law, and that it has remained a dead letter. 

11* 



126 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

If the object of the framers of the law was to en- 
able the Annual Conferences to hold property or to 
secure bequests, which is a supposable case, then the 
objections that have been made to such power in a 
Conference on the ground of irresponsibility and un- 
certain life have full force, and there is the further ob- 
jection that this method of holding property and 
receiving bequests for church and benevolent purposes 
is not necessary. All such bequests and property can 
be safely held for the benefit of the church through 
chartered societies or through trustees, avoiding doubt- 
ful questions of legality. That this is the judgment 
of good and able men is evinced by the fact that no 
church as an organic body has been chartered, and that 
they all work through societies and boards. 

Having thus shown that an Annual Conference, by 
its formation and condition of life, is not fitted for the 
use of corporate powers, and that such powers are not 
required for the reception of bequests or the holding 
of property, they being better taken care of by societies, 
the next question will be, What would be the effect on 
the church if the Annual Conferences were to act on 
such instructions and receive corporate powers to be 
used in good directions ? 

In the first place, unless all the Conferences were 
limited by State or Territorial boundaries, there would 
be an inequality among them which would be unjust. 
Some would have powers which others could not possess. 
If they comprised parts of two or more States, then 
the State chartering could not control their action in 
another State. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 127 

Secondly: Unless the General Conference specified 
by statute the powers to be granted by such charters 
and how they should be used, there would be no two 
charters alike; ending in inevitable confusion, legal 
difficulties, expense, and disgrace. 

Thirdly : Such chartered Conferences would upset 
the whole polity of Methodism. The possession of a 
charter would, first, prevent any change of Conference 
limits, either by adding to or taking from them. It 
would place personal responsibility on the members of 
one Conference that might be greater than in another, 
and it might secure more financial help to members of 
one Conference than to another. Such possibilities, and 
many of the same character, would destroy the policy 
of an itinerancy and of transfers. Any interference 
with the free movement of the organization of the 
church would be injurious. It would also aifect the 
appointing power in many ways. 

Fourthly : It would be building up financial in- 
terests in the church, wholly and absolutely in the 
power and under the control of the ministry. It would 
be laying the foundations of a spiritual hierarchy that 
would be destructive of the evangelical character and 
spiritual life of the church. It would add to the offices 
to be filled by the ministry ; the temptation to the sec- 
ularization of the ministry would be increased; the 
church would incur greater risk of injury and disgrace 
by the failure of the ministers to properly manage be- 
quests, or to handle real and personal property. 

There is danger to the church in having such a law 
in the Discipline, — it is marvellous that it has been 



128 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

permitted so many years of unmolested existence. Laws 
supposed to be dead and inoperative sometimes and 
very unexpectedly spring into life and cause trouble. 
Whatever may have been the object of the introduc- 
tion of this one, it is time it should be erased from our 
statute book, or it may give trouble when least looked 
for. The laity in all the States should bear this possi- 
bility in mind and be prepared to defeat any attempt 
to secure corporate power for the Annual Conferences, 
either directly from legislatures or through general laws 
of incorporation. 

The presence of such a law in the statute book of 
the church affords an additional argument in favor of 
securing a more careful examination of proposed changes 
of, or additions to, the Discipline than is possible in the 
General Conference as at present organized, and it points 
directly at the necessity of a full lay representation in 
the councils of the church, and further, the division of 
the General Conference into two bodies (clerical and 

lay). 

III. The Quarterly Conference. 

The third organized body in the church, the wheel 
within two wheels, is the Quarterly Conference. 

It is composed of the stationed preacher, the attached 
superannuated and supernumerary preachers, the local 
preachers and exhorters connected with the station or 
circuit, the stewards, class-leaders, trustees of the church, 
and the superintendent of the Sunday-schools. The 
trustees and the superintendent must be members of the 
church and approved by the Quarterly Conference. 
The preacher in charge appoints the class-leaders and 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 129 

exhorters, and nominates the stewards and trustees (when 
not otherwise provided by State laws) to the Conference 
for their approval. The Conference gives license to 
local preachers and exhorters, and recommends candi- 
dates for the travelling ministry ; it takes care of the 
spiritual and temporal interests of the church in each 
station or circuit ; it performs an important part in the 
organization of the church, and is presided over by the 
elder of the district. 

Its peculiar constitution was a natural outgrowth of 
the church in two directions. 

First : That the power of control over the personnel 
of the Quarterly Conference might be retained by the 
preacher in charge, through the presence of the attached 
preachers, of the local preachers and the exhorters, and 
through his power of appointment and nomination. 
The result of this is, that the Quarterly Conference 
is a creature of the preacher in charge, controlled by 
men in sympathy with him, and by those who owe their 
membership either to his appointment or to his nomina- 
tion. The right to nominate the stewards has always 
befcn considered a valuable prerogative of the ministry, 
as the stewards have charge of the ministers' support, 
and furnish a medium, through their number, by which 
the preacher in charge can always control a Quarterly 
Conference. The increase in the legal numbers of the 
stewards is an interesting study. Beginning with two, 
Conference after Conference has extended the legal 
limit, until, by act of the General Conference of 1884, 
the numbers are fixed at three and thirteen, an increase 
of four over the act of 1872. 



130 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

Second : The composition of the Conference was an 
inevitable result of the peculiar character of the early 
ministry of the church. Beginning almost exclusively 
in evangelistic and circuit work, the persons with whom 
the preacher naturally came into contact, and with 
whom he would counsel, were the local preachers and 
exhorters, the right arms of the itinerants of that early 
day; the class-leaders, as knowing the religious state 
of the members; and the stewards, who gathered the 
contributions of the people. These men were a neces- 
sity to the successful work of the ministry. There was 
the more reason to form them into an official body, 
because they generally represented the most useful of 
the members, and those best fitted for service. 

The power given to a pastor to control a Quarterly 
Conference through his right of nomination and ap- 
pointment was unquestionably due to a belief that such 
authority was required to secure the most suitable mem- 
bers for the several places. At the same time it carried 
out the policy of the church by placing all power in the 
ministry. 

While it is acknowledged that the Quarterly Con- 
ference cannot, in some form, be dispensed with, yet 
the question now is, whether it is, under the present 
conditions and circumstances of the church, necessary 
or advisable (1) to continue the controlling power of 
the ministry over it, and (2) to retain the present 
composition of a body charged with its peculiar duties. 

That there should be some body with authority to 
take care of and conduct the spiritual and temporal 
interests of each circuit or station in harmony with the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. \%\ 

duties of the Annual, and the power of the General 
Conference, is evident. How such a body should be 
constituted, and where the power necessary to its suc- 
cess should be placed, are important questions, the an- 
swers to which will be judged by their tendency to 
increase the efficiency of the individual station or circuit, 
and by the greater acceptability of the plan to the laity. 

The first requisite of any plan would be to free it 
from the control of the minister in charge. The second, 
to make it a body truly representative of the member- 
ship. 

An objection to the continuance of the power exer- 
cised over the Quarterly Conference by the preacher in 
charge is, that it is not needed to secure the proper at- 
tention to the business of the church; and as power 
should only be given when required for certain pur- 
poses, therefore the power now given to the preacher 
over the Quarterly Conference is unwise, and should be 
withdrawn. Another objection is to be found in the 
fact that through this power the minister controls the 
purse as well as the pulpit of the church. The pos- 
session of such a control is dangerous to the ministry 
and to the laity. Such a union is wrong in theory and 
principle ; it is bad in practice. To take care of the 
spiritual interests of the church is the special work of 
the pastor. It embraces enough to employ all his time 
and talents. 

It may be well, at this point, to notice a difficulty 
that will be met by any suggestions for change, either 
in the composition of the Quarterly Conference or in 
the laws regulating it. 



132 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

The ministry have been from the first intimately 
connected with the management of every interest of 
their appointments; they have generally carried the 
burdens that come with the financial needs as well as 
the spiritual interests of their churches. Indeed, it 
has so largely become their habit to look after the con- 
dition of the treasury, that with difficulty they keep 
themselves from interfering even when there is no 
necessity for it. In this respect their work resembles 
most closely that of the Catholic priest, and is unlike 
that of the ministers of the other churches. It had its 
origin in the fact of the early preachers being so thor- 
oughly evangelists. They had to provide for and 
take care of their personal necessities. This interfer- 
ence with the business of the charges has continued to 
the present day. A Methodist preacher accepts it as 
part of his work. 

The form of the Quarterly Conference is objection- 
able in that it does not provide for a proper represen- 
tation of the members of any station or circuit, and 
thereby deprives them of the control of the business 
and finances of the circuits and stations. 

This is a more serious objection than may at first 
sight appear, because there is no way by which a lay- 
man may become a member of the Quarterly Confer- 
ence other than through the preacher in charge. This 
is true even in States where the law requires that trus- 
tees must be elected by the members of the church, 
because they are, when elected, subject to the approval 
of the Quarterly Conference. A Quarterly Conference 
is no more a representative body of a church than a 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 133 

Congress would be of the people of the United States if 
its members were composed solely of persons appointed 
by the President, and of others nominated by him and 
approved by persons he had appointed. Men of un- 
exceptionable character, acquirements, and piety may 
be members of the church for thirty, forty, or sixty 
years without being members of this official body, if 
for any reason they have failed to meet the approval or 
to get the favor of the preacher in charge. Whereas 
a member of a church who has at one time, and in 
some other charge, been elected an exhorter or a local 
preacher; a minister who has become supernumerary, 
from whatever cause, or superannuated ; a class-leader 
who may continue in charge of a class, are members 
of the Quarterly Conference so long as such relations 
continue. To argue that a body so exclusive, so ap- 
pointed, — a body that is not responsible to the immedi- 
ate church for the conduct of its secular business, — is 
representative, is an absurdity. 

There is no reason, in the nature of the case, why 
class-leaders, exhorters, local and attached supernumer- 
ary and superannuated preachers, Sunday-school super- 
intendents, or trustees should be members, by virtue of 
their position, of such a body. The purpose for which 
a Quarterly Conference exists in the church can be 
reached without this exclusiveness, violation, and per- 
version of the representative principle. This body 
should be chosen by the members ; it might be divided 
into two bodies, — one having charge of the spiritual, 
the other of the secular interests of a church. If, as 
is often the case, the class-leaders, exhorters, local min- 

12 



134 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

isters, Sunday-school superintendents, and trustees of a 
church are the better qualified to be members of the 
Quarterly Conference, they will be chosen by the mem- 
bers of a station. The attached ministers of a Confer- 
ence have no proper claim or right either to a place, a 
vote, or a representation in the Quarterly Conference. 
Why should they vote on the secular business of a 
church of which they are not members, and to the 
support of which they may not be contributors ? The 
present method of constituting a Quarterly Conference 
may prevent, as has been noticed, the use of the best 
talent and most marked piety in a church. The mem- 
bers are the best judges of the suitability of their 
brethren for places in such a body. 

Another objection is the general one, which will be 
frequently noted, that the present plan is injurious to 
all parties, because it places upon the ministry duties 
which are not in harmony with their peculiar work ; 
because it separates them from the body of the mem- 
bers ; because it prevents the members from partaking 
as fully as they should feel it is their right and duty 
to do in the management of the interests of the indi- 
vidual church, and they are thereby the losers in grace 
from failing to do their whole duty ; because these hin- 
drances to the individual churches affect in the aggre- 
gate the prosperity of the whole church, and by so 
doing interfere with its highest duty, — the conversion 
of the people. To the appointments by the minister 
of the spiritual leaders and teachers in the church, viz., 
the class-leaders and the Sunday-school superintendents, 
there should be no objection, nor to the presence of the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 135 

pastor as a member of the Quarterly Conference, nor 
to the presidency of the elder. It is acknowledged 
that, as a whole, the pastors have used their power over 
the Quarterly Conference with great prudence, and it 
is largely owing to this fact that the laity have not 
taken more decided action in favor of changes in the 
church organizations which would be in harmony with 
the spirit of the country and the welfare of the church. 
The hand of power has pressed lightly upon them, 
though not less absolute when exerted. 

Finally, the duties of a Quarterly Conference could 
be as well done by an elected, and therefore a represent- 
ative body, as they are now by the appointed body. 
They could attend to all the financial wants of the 
church or circuit, provide for the support of the min- 
isters, of the presiding elder, take care of the property 
of the church, plan for its extension, give and renew 
licenses of exhorters and local preachers, and pass judg- 
ment on applicants for the ministry. There are no 
duties of a Conference, which are now performed by 
the brethren who are appointed, that the same brethren 
could not perform if they were elected by the member- 
ship. 

The election of representatives to the lay Confer- 
ence should be reserved to the members at large, and 
not given to any smaller body. An objection to the 
election of such delegates by the Quarterly Conference, 
apart from the principle, is found in the fact that a 
minister, through his power of appointment of mem- 
bers of the Conference, can, in many cases, determine 
the selection of such representatives, and the lay Con- 



136 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ferences are thereby unduly and improperly influenced 
by the ministry. All such possibilities and temptations 
should be removed from the ministry ; they have temp- 
tations enough, growing out of the performance of 
their proper duties. 

An important point will be gained in broadening the 
members by increasing their interest in and knowl- 
edge of the workings of the church through the intro- 
duction of such changes in the Quarterly Conference 
as shall make it a representative body, freed from the 
domination of the preacher in charge. The ministerial 
brethren need not be alarmed by these suggestions ; if 
adopted they will greatly relieve them from respon- 
sibilities they should not have. Nor need they fear the 
introduction of elections by the members; these can 
be held with as little commotion and as little friction 
as is now present in the election of trustees as provided 
by the laws of some States. They may be assured that 
the laity will not disgrace themselves with the election- 
eering tactics which are quadrennially used in some of 
the Annual and General Conferences. 

LOCAL PEEACHEES AND EXHOETEES. 

Before closing this analysis and review of the insti- 
tution, work, and constitution of the Quarterly Confer- 
ence, it may be advisable to look more carefully at one 
of its distinguishing features, viz., the local preachers* 

* The Annual Conferences have power to locate or place in 
the ranks of local preachers members of the Annual Confer- 
ences. They then become responsible to the Quarterly Confer- 
ence to which they are attached. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 137 

and exhorters, who are created by and are responsible 
to the Quarterly Conference. 

As a part of the organism of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church this relation deserves some study. The 
presence of such officers in the church is one of its 
peculiarities ; they, with the pastor and class-leaders, 
form a spiritual quartette that has been a power for 
good in the church. The early preachers appointed by 
Mr. Wesley, like the "poor priests" or itinerant 
preachers of Wycliffe, went about their work to instruct 
the people in a knowledge of the gospel. They, too, were 
denounced " As unauthorized itinerant preachers, who 
set forth erroneous, yea, heretical assertions in public 
sermons, not only in churches, but also in public squares 
and other profane places, and who do this under the 
guise of great holiness, but without having obtained 
any Episcopal or Papal authorization. " (Archbishop 
Courtenay to Bishop of London, 1382.) 

After the introduction of ordination into the church, 
the office of local preacher was continued for local pur- 
poses in England, and was made a like part of the or- 
ganization of the church in this country. In the early 
days these preachers were useful in supplying the pul- 
pits, in the absence of the circuit preacher and in open- 
ing new places for religious service ; their work was a 
continuation of the more purely evangelistic labor of 
the earlier preachers. Through this office the gifts 
and graces of many men have been developed, and 
their way opened into the itinerancy ; this relation to 
the church was also held by many who withdrew from 
the active ministry. 

12* 



138 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

It will be readily comprehended wherein the work 
of a local preacher was and is advantageous to the 
church, on large circuits in newly-settled districts of 
country, and in more settled places where openings may 
still be found for missions or for the initiation of 
churches; yet, in the older territory of the church, 
there seems but little place for the local ministry or 
for the exhorters. The last two General Conferences 
were impressed with the necessity that more care should 
be taken by the Quarterly and District Conferences in 
admitting candidates for local preachers' licenses, and 
therefore increased the subjects on which they are to 
be examined when applying for orders. This is a step 
in the right direction, and needs to be closely followed 
up by increasing the requirements and decreasing the 
numbers. 

The necessity for their existence is rapidly fading away 
because of their general unacceptability as preachers, 
their failure to do the special work that the office was 
created for, the lack of care of Quarterly Conferences 
in selecting for preachers men of intelligence and of 
accepted and acknowledged religious character, and 
further, because the work they did in former times can 
now be done without the authority of church appoint- 
ment, which was then thought necessary. This is another 
evidence of the change in the theology of the church 
as to the peculiar right of the ministers to teach and 
preach publicly. The right of the laity to speak and 
teach without formal appointment is generally recog- 
nized. 

The proof is at hand that, in addition to the failure 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 139 

to perform their whole duty, there are many more in 
the local ranks than are required. This proof is found 
in a recent circular of the Home Mission Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, which 
says in effect that there are in that city two hundred 
local preachers (or about two to each church), that the 
majority of them are doing but little in their official 
capacity, and an appeal is made to the church to furnish 
money to find these two hundred men, or a majority of 
them, something to do. This is practically confessing 
that the evangelistic spirit has departed from the local 
preachers as a body or they would find plenty of work 
in a large city, and, as there are few vacant pulpits for 
them to fill, owing to the abundance of supernumer- 
aries, their usefulness is about at an end. As it is in 
the city of Philadelphia, so it probably is in all the 
more settled parts of the country. 

Another thought is worth remembering, that the 
fact of holding authority to preach operates against 
the influence and acceptability of these brethren. The 
authorized preacher comes with an endorsement of the 
church, which is received as assuring a fair degree of 
ability and acquirements, and, as the great majority 
of the local preachers fail to reach the lowest standard, 
they are unacceptable. The layman may preach no 
better, yet will be more acceptable, because he comes 
with no profession or endorsement of ability. So long 
as the newer country may need the services of local 
preachers and exhorters, it might not be prudent to 
dispense with the office. It may be necessary to con- 
tinue the relation as a home, a resting-place, for the 



140 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

travelling ministers when they lose their efficiency or 
become supernumerary, or by time and infirmities 
superannuated, unless the church should accept the 
suggestion hereinbefore made, that such men who are 
worthy may be continued as members of the ministry 
of the church at large, without being members of an 
Annual Conference. Yet some plan should be devised 
to reduce the number of local preachers and prevent 
such misuse of their office as seems to exist in the city 
of Philadelphia. 

The local preachers as a body feel that they are like 
a fifth wheel to a wagon, and that there is now no proper 
place for them in church work. They do not seem to 
understand the causes which have been operating to 
produce this result, and are making vain efforts to 
magnify their office by securing some more distinctly 
recognized position of influence in the church. They 
do not see that they have as a body either failed to do 
their work well, and therefore cannot have any higher 
position, or that, owing to the development and growth 
of the church in all directions, there is no demand for 
their services. Still, a higher grade of men, lessened 
numbers, and deeper piety might contribute to make 
the office of local preacher more useful and acceptable 
to the people. The office of exhorter is entirely un- 
necessary. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 141 



CHAPTER III. 

The defects and dangers arising from the constitution and form 
of management of the charitable work of the church, and of 
its publishing interests. 

Having thus fully analyzed and discussed the three 
councils of the church, the second class of subjects is 
to be examined, viz., the official charitable work and 
the publishing interests of the church. 

FIRST: THE OFFICIAL CHARITABLE WORK OF THE 
CHURCH. 

When the laity open the Discipline to gain informa- 
tion upon the structure of the official charitable organ- 
izations of the church, they will first be surprised to 
find how imperfectly they are described, the Board of 
Church Extension being the only one that is properly 
and intelligently presented. The second defect will be 
found in the inconsistency in the titles of many of 
these organizations. They are known by the names 
of the Missionary Society, the Board of Church Ex- 
tension, the Sunday-School Union, the Freedmen's Aid 
Society, the Tract Society, and the Board of Education. 

Many of the laity will be surprised to find that 
there is no society, in fact, connected with any of 
these boards, the General Conference of 1872 having 



142 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

taken action which did away with every vestige of a 
society and placed the control of these interests in 
managers appointed by the General Conference. As 
to the provision for auxiliary societies found in the 
Discipline, the question will be asked, How can a soci- 
ety be auxiliary to a board ? And as to life- member- 
ship, patrons, etc., of these boards, there would be as 
much relevancy if they were connected with the obelisk 
in the New York Central Park. 

The third result will be equally new to most of the 
laity : that there is now no responsibility connected with 
any of these boards to the church or to the members; 
that no contributor has a vote, or by his membership 
in an auxiliary society, any influence in their manage- 
ment. If a contributor insists that his local society 
must be auxiliary to a society, as the Discipline has it, 
he is informed that it is auxiliary to a board, which 
merely means that the local society is to send its con- 
tributions to the board to be by it distributed. 

The fourth point is in the manner of the constitution 
of these boards. The laity who have not examined 
this subject will be astonished to find how shrewdly 
an apparent fairness in equal clerical and lay repre- 
sentation in the boards is turned into an impotent 
minority of the laity, and how thoroughly the way 
is guarded, in their formation, to keep the power in 
the hands of the clergy. 

Before showing how the boards are constructed it 
will be well to look more closely at the changes made 
in the church societies by the act of the General Con- 
ference of 1872. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 143 

The object of forming societies to carry on church 
work is twofold : First, to procure by charter the 
right to receive bequests, to make contracts, and to 
carry on the work without the managers incurring any 
personal liability ; and, secondly, to increase the interest 
in, and pecuniary aid to, the different causes by a per- 
sonal membership. The influence of such membership 
on the personal and active interest taken needs no ar- 
gument. This power for good is used by nearly all 
the churches. The Roman Catholics understand and 
use it extensively in their work. The influence of it 
is seen in the interest in the annual meetings of the 
" American Board ;" in the missionary work of the 
Wesleyans, and most fully in that of the " Women's 
Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church." In these instances the society in each 
individual church feels that it is part of the principal 
body, and that it is doing a special work. Three rea- 
sons may be given for the success of the last-named 
society : First, in that it adopts thoroughly the society 
idea; secondly, in that it is the only society in the 
church in which the members have any direct inter- 
est, representation, or influence ; and, thirdly, in that 
the contributors are furnished a detailed account of the 
expenditures. There is not now much encouragement 
to our members to make contributions to causes over 
which they have no control ; in whose management they 
have no representation ; whose policy they have no op- 
portunity to discuss or to influence, nor knowledge as 
to how their money is expended. But further than this, 
while the lay contributors have no voice in the distri- 



144 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

bution of their money, there is no provision in the law 
of the church or of these boards which requires that the 
managers — the men who distribute the money — should 
have given one penny to any of these causes. Herein 
is a great error. Money qualification, as determinative 
of the interest felt in proportion to one's means, should 
be a test of the right of representation ; however small 
the contribution might be, the principle should be recog- 
nized. The Wesleyan Mission Society permits every 
annual subscriber of one pound to take part in certain 
meetings of the society. 

When an arbitrarily formed body makes a demand 
on the members of a church for aid in any cause, 
much of the strength of the demand is lost by a sense 
of unfairness and the want of responsibility in the body 
making the demand. Yet in compliance with the wish, 
as it was understood, of the clique of office-holders at 
805 Broadway, New York, the General Conference 
of 1872 adopted the plan of boards of managers, to be 
appointed by the Conference, in place of managers 
elected by the societies, to conduct their affairs, ostensi- 
bly for the purpose of bringing these societies " into 
organic union with the church, instead of being under 
the uncertain control of members made such by volun- 
tary contributions." (Tract No. 4, Society Series.) The 
real object was to get rid of any possible opposition 
by the laity to the absolute control of these societies 
by the ministers of the church. There had been no 
uncertainty in the control of the societies by the con- 
tributing members. These societies had never injured 
the causes they represented ; indeed, the interest of the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 145 

church in the causes was created through the societies 
thus abolished. The contributors were loyal to the 
church. But as the contributors to these societies were 
the laity, and the fact of such contribution made them 
members, with all the rights of such to partake in their 
management, in determining their policy, and in elect- 
ing the officers, such rights and powers were considered 
an interference with the higher right of the ministers 
to manage the church. The change from societies to 
boards thus introduced a direct charge that the laity of 
the church were unreliable, and could not be trusted 
with the management of such interests. It was an 
insult to their Christian manhood. The argument for 
" closer organic union" was a miserable apology for so 
great a wrong, and even if such union were desirable, 
it was obtained at too great a cost. This violently 
taking out of the hands of the laity the control of the 
charities of the church, without notice to the members 
of the societies, and placing them almost absolutely 
under the control of the ministry, was a great wrong, 
not only to the laity and the church, but to the cause of 
Jesus Christ, and was followed by other acts of ques- 
tionable character. In obedience to the action of the 
General Conference, applications were made to the legis- 
latures of several States by some societies regularly, 
and by others irregularly, for changes in their charters ; 
transferring the management to boards appointed by 
the General Conference. The amendments thus made 
involved serious questions of their constitutionality. 
The invasion of private and vested rights, the violation 
of contracts, the fraud on the States, in securing a 
q k 13 



146 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

grant of corporate powers to irresponsible boards, are 
questions which might have been raised at an earlier 
day. But by reason of the peculiar work of these 
boards, the absence of danger from them to the public 
weal, and the time that has elapsed, any court would 
be tempted to condone the wrong. That which would 
not be permitted in private or corporate relations be- 
tween men, because of wrong, can be allowed to the 
church, on the principle that the church may be par- 
doned for doing wrong if good shall come of it. 

So much as to this change from societies under the 
control of the laity to boards under the control of the 
ministers has been written, not in expectation of any 
reversal of the policy of boards, but to show how care- 
fully the ministers have guarded every point in the 
organization of the church so as to prevent the laity 
from having any influence in its legislation, and further 
to show to the laity the danger there is in leaving the 
control of these interests in the hands of the ministry. 
The boards of managers of all the general societies, so 
called, are appointed by the General Conference in this 
wise: Previous to the General Conference of 1884 the 
Board of Bishops submitted names of managers of 
the several boards to the approval of the General 
Conference. But in 1884 it was discovered that this 
power was too great to be trusted to the bishops, and a 
new plan was adopted, which would place such nomi- 
nations under the control of the ministry. The General 
Conference elects its standing committees, in which the 
laity are in the minority ; the standing committees elect 
their chairmen; the ministers, being in a majority, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 147 

can always secure the chairman. The bishops, num- 
bering twelve, with the twelve chairmen of the stand- 
ing committees (of which, in May, 1884, nine were 
ministers and three laymen), nominate the managers 
of the boards, equally divided between the ministry 
and the laity, subject to the approval of the General 
Conference. That is, a committee of twenty-one min- 
isters and three laymen make the managers of the 
boards of all our great benevolent institutions. But, 
as a fifth point, the more thoroughly to control these 
charities, another ministerial wheel connected with the 
more important of these boards, viz., the Missionary 
and Church Extension, comes into use. There is a 
committee termed the General Committee of the Mis- 
sionary Society, and one for the Board of Church Ex- 
tension. The committee in the case of the Missionary 
Society, which may be used as an example, is com- 
posed of the bishops (twelve), the members of the 
General Conference districts (thirteen, all ministers), 
a committee of twelve of the board of managers (six 
laymen and six ministers), with the corresponding sec- 
retaries (two) and the treasurers (two), making in all 
thirty-four ministers to seven laymen. It is the duty 
of this committee to meet annually, and to determine 
what fields shall be occupied as foreign missions, the 
number of persons to be employed, the amount of 
money required for the support of the missions; it 
regulates domestic missions, and assesses the church in 
sums to meet all expenses. 

The board of managers merely carry out the will 
of the general mission committee ; they act as an ex- 



148 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ecutive committee, and for all practical purposes their 
number might be decreased to the present number of 
one of their sub-committees. The treasurers of the 
Missionary Society are the Book Agents, — one in New 
York and one in Cincinnati. With the exception of 
Mr. Phillips they have always been ministers. The 
laity will now understand how completely all the chari- 
ties of the church are controlled by the ministers, and 
will ask, Was there any necessity for the change from 
the societies to the boards ? Was there any good reason 
for this purposed exclusion of the laity ? Is it not an 
unjust, unsafe, and unscriptural division of responsi- 
bility ? Should not those who contribute the money 
have an equal voice in its distribution ? Should the 
great interests involving the appropriation and disburse- 
ment of much more than a million of dollars annually 
be so absolutely under the control of the ministers? 
Are there not elements of danger in it to the ministry 
and the church ? Is not the hearty co-operation of the 
laity a necessity to success? The laity will ask in 
loud tones if it is not high time that such control 
should end. They will point to the comparatively 
small contributions of the church as an evidence that a 
radical change is needed. These boards, as constituted, 
do not and cannot reach the hearts and pockets of the 
laity to the extent the causes demand. The laity are 
kept at a distance, and know little about them ex- 
cept as they are yearly informed of the assessments 
these magnates in Zion have imposed upon them. No 
amount of pulpit or oratorical ability or persuasive 
talent which these boards can employ will make up for 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 149 

the want of knowledge and personal interest felt by the 
laity of the church. The ministers have failed to see 
the cause of their failure ; they should learn that the 
laity are no longer children to be kept in leading- 
strings. If proper success is to be had in the mission, 
church extension, and other work of the church, the 
laity must be made responsible by having a full share 
in the management, They understand what the mem- 
bers want to know, and they have the ability to reach 
them. Whatever may be the best policy as to church 
boards or societies, one thing is a prerequisite to suc- 
cess, — that there must be an approximation to a fair 
representation of the laity in these boards. In accord- 
ance with the principles already discussed, such boards 
should consist of representatives of the membership of 
the church (including the ministry), without regard to 
their order. A reasonable suggestion would be to select 
as managers of the boards from two-thirds to three- 
fourths from the lay members and the one-third or one- 
fourth from the ministers. 

There are many good reasons for making some distinc- 
tion in the proportion. Among them are the facts that, 
as the secretaries are and will probably be ministers, 
they affiliate with men of the same class in the boards. 
They hang together and defend each other. Their class 
feeling and jealousy of the interference of laymen are 
quickly excited. All laymen who have been mem- 
bers of boards of managers in any religious or church 
society understand what this class feeling means, and 
how thoroughly it operates to prevent proper ex- 
amination of finances, of management, and of policy, 

13* 



150 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

more especially if the secretary if a minister is in any 
way involved in the examination or discussion. They 
further know how such conduct tends to lower the con- 
fidence of the laity in the ministers, because they fail to 
measure up to the high standard they teach. Then, 
again, there is among the ministerial representatives in 
such boards a constant tendency to extravagance in 
salaries and expenses. Not being accustomed to the use 
of money in large amounts, they use it badly ; not being 
trained to business accuracy, their accounts are generally 
loosely prepared, and they lack care and knowledge in 
investments. In fact, their education and habits as 
ministers do and should unfit them for the business 
work of such boards. Then, again, there can be no de- 
nial of the proposition so often made in these pages, that 
the parties having the largest interest should have the 
controlling power, and in harmony with this, the laity 
being the principal contributors, in numbers and in 
money, should have a decidedly preponderating influ- 
ence in determining the distribution of the money. 

If, then, in view of these arguments, and conceding 
the force of habit, the laity should insist upon an equal 
division of the membership of the different boards be- 
tween the ministry and laity, they would be asking 
but little and yielding much. Let, then, the laity 
insist on equal representation on all boards, on ail 
committees, and on the joint executive or general 
committees of the Missionary and Church Extension 
Boards. Let them insist that full and accurate re- 
ports shall be made of the proceedings of the boards ; 
of the reception and expenditure of the money ; of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 151 

salaries paid, incidental expenses, etc. ; of the results 
obtained ; of the providential openings for new and in- 
creased work, and all other information by which the 
members may be educated in the history and pro- 
gress of each charity. If this were done the younger 
members of the church would acquire a deeper interest 
in each cause, the collections would increase, by the 
responsibility placed upon the laity to take their part 
in the management, and to give their counsel, as well 
as their money. 

These remarks are applicable to all the boards. The 
large amounts heretofore given to them are a mark of 
the general confidence of the church in their manage- 
ment. But from the " Church Extension" Board there 
has not for years been an intelligible report by which 
the laity could measure the economy or the success of 
the management. No proper account of expenses has 
been rendered, of the distribution of the money re- 
ceived, of the money invested or loaned, or of the 
churches to which it has been loaned, the length of 
time, amount unpaid, interest due, amounts suspended 
or cancelled or lost. Nor has it been stated how much 
of yearly contributions has been applied to making 
good the interest on the amounts loaned and the prin- 
cipal of the loans. Nor has information been given of 
the terms of the annuities, including probable dura- 
tion, rate of interest, and amount loaned, the character 
of the property received, whether money or real estate, 
and the liabilities of the board. 

There has been in connection with this society a 
most reprehensible practice by which to increase its 



152 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

loan fund, viz., the securing of devises in wills, or 
grants of property under an agreement to pay annuities ; 
a simple repetition of the policy of the Roman Catholic 
Church which has been condemned by the courts and 
legislatures of the States, as taking advantage of weak- 
ness of mind and of the disposition of old age to pur- 
chase happiness hereafter. When the membership in 
the General Conference shall be equally divided between 
the ministry and the laity, and when the personnel of 
the boards of managers is readjusted (and such a time 
must be waited for, because of the difficulty the laity 
always meet in introducing investigations into the plan 
and the management of religious societies which are 
controlled by the ministry), then one of the questions to 
be discussed will be this institution of loan and annuity 
funds by our boards. The laity will inquire, First: 
Into the legal power to accept and hold such funds 
under their charters, unless they come under all the pro- 
visions introduced by legislatures in Annuity Company 
Charters, with a proper capital for the protection of 
the persons interested, and are made subject to taxa- 
tion and the supervision of the courts. The laity will 
at once see that in the Church Extension Board there is 
no capital, and no financial responsibility; no security 
for the investors. Its being a church institution would 
in such matters operate against rather than in its favor. 
Second : The laity would start the query and accompany 
it with an answer, that if the purpose of introducing 
such a financial business was to make money out of it, 
then it is wrong; for the church has no business to 
enter into any scheme for the object of financial profit. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 153 

Third : That if the object be to get the best results of 
the money, to secure the greatest safety, then such money 
should be placed in charge of some company chartered 
for such a purpose. Prudent investment of money 
requires the employment of trained men, who are used 
to examination of titles, who understand the laws of 
real and personal estate, values of property, condition 
of the money market, and many other points. What fit- 
ness is there in intrusting to a benevolent body, under 
church control, with a majority of ministers in its 
management, with a minister at its head, such duties, 
involving the care of such investments ? The argument 
that such funds are used to help poor churches is an 
evidence of the insecurity of the investments. Few 
capitalists will loan money on churches, unless well 
secured in the value of the property and by personal 
bonds. No prudent man, as a business operation, would 
lend money for a length of time to a church that is 
poor in any sense. The private citizen may prosecute 
his claim to a sale, the Church Board cannot. The fact 
of the loan being made by a Church Board is an evi- 
dence that it is attended by great risk and probable 
loss, and in the absence of any danger of sale, the loan 
is unpaid, interest accumulates, to be ultimately for- 
given. 

If individuals choose to institute a fund for such 
purposes, for which there is no responsibility except 
honesty in permanently investing it, there can be no 
objection ; but for a church society to invest funds on 
which it has to pay a fixed annuity will be conceded to 
be a most unwise policy. Fourth : The laity will also 



154 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

discover that the only method of meeting any deficiency 
in such receipts, or of making good any money lost 
through bad loans or imprudent investments, is by use of 
moneys contributed by the members for other purposes. 
Such engagements under the annuity system by any of 
the boards is placing a responsibility upon the church 
that is wrong, and that the laity will refuse to recognize. 
Fifth : The laity will further make note that in this 
increase of financial operations, which are not in 
themselves necessary, there is involved much of risk 
to the church, the secretaries, the managers, and to 
the parties financially interested ; that it adds to the 
number of offices to be filled ; that it offers tempting 
places to the ministry; that it creates sinecures; and 
is demoralizing and dangerous in its results. Sixth : 
That there is a tendency to increase society invest- 
ments in this line was proven by the introduction 
of a plan in the last General Conference to add the 
powers of a Fire Insurance Company to those of an 
Annuity Life Insurance in the Board of Church Ex- 
tension. Fortunately and with some degree of surprise, 
the proposition did not meet with favor. There must 
be a total disseverance of plans of money-making from 
those of saving immortal souls.* 

The history of church boards and societies teaches 
us how great care should be constantly taken to confine 
their operations to proper church work ; to secure 
economy of working; to keep them from becoming 

* Recent developments in the management of the Church Ex- 
tension Society justify and enforce the above criticisms. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 155 

merely soft places with good salaries ; to make them 
effective, and to prevent fraud and loss. The presence 
of a large number of educated and independent busi- 
ness men in these boards is necessary to secure such 
results. There is danger in them if this is not done. 
A final recommendation is in place. In the analysis 
of the General Conference it was suggested, as a pre- 
ventive against the evils arising from electioneering 
for office, with its questionable accompaniments, and 
as a means of securing men better fitted for the different 
offices, that the boards of managers, when properly con- 
stituted, by the admission of the laity, should have the 
selection of their executive officers, and that in such 
selection they should be guided by the principle of 
assigning to a minister such duties as properly belong 
to his "calling," and to a layman such duties as ap- 
pertain to matters of business. The advantages of a 
division of labor would be seen in the improved work- 
ing of the Missionary Board and of the Board of 
Church Extension. 

PUBLISHING INTEEESTS. 

One of the first duties that will devolve upon the 
laity, when properly represented in the General Con- 
ference, will be to make a thorough examination of 
the policy of the publishing business of the church, 
including the methods of management, supervision, 
and how far these should be continued, enlarged, or 
diminished. It may be said, generally, that all money 
matters are sources of temptation to the individual in 
the church as well as in trade, and that these terapta- 



156 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

tions and the accompanying evils increase just as the 
necessity for such operations by a church diminishes. 
Failure is very apt to follow a man who late in life 
changes his business. Any money engagement of an 
individual minister or of a church that is not strictly 
within the limits of propriety and necessity will cor- 
rupt and injure both the man and the church. The 
black roll is not small of Methodist ministers who have 
been led into speculation and lost their money, and 
with it their religion and reputation. Will not the 
result be the same with larger operations? 

An examination of the object and management of 
the publishing interests of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church may be timely, and if there is any source of 
danger or any cause to fear injury to the church or the 
ministry, it may appear and be suggestive of required 
changes or increased guards. 

The publishing interests originated at an early day 
in the history of the church ; it was thought by the 
Fathers, and it was probably true, that they were 
at that time necessary, in order that our members 
might be supplied with its own literature. As in the 
case of John Wesley, publishers could not be found 
who would take the risk of publishing Methodist 
books, and booksellers would not keep them on their 
shelves. As a result of these difficulties in the way 
of reaching the people, the publication of books was 
commenced and their distribution and sale secured 
through the travelling preachers. To satisfy the mem- 
bers that the object of such publication was not to make 
personal profit, and to avoid the dangers arising from 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 157 

accumulated capital, it was provided that all surplus 
profits should be divided among the Conferences, to 
be applied to aid the needy ministers. Both objects 
were good in their day, but the management of these 
interests has gone far beyond the simple principles on 
which they were started. The questions are, How far, 
or to what extent, under the changed conditions of 
business, of the church, and of the country, such pub- 
lishing establishments are now required by the church? 
Is the money annually distributed (in 1884 some 
fifteen thousand dollars to the Annual Conferences) of 
any material help to the needy? To answer the last 
question first, the amount distributed is so small that 
it probably (as will be shown hereafter) takes more 
from them, in the way of aid from the laity, than it 
contributes. If this is so, the petty distribution is an 
evil ; and, further, if the small pittance per head is 
used as an argument to uphold the continuance of the 
publishing interests of the church as now carried on, 
though contrary to its welfare, then they are a temp- 
tation to wrong, are demoralizing to the ministry, and 
a danger to the church. In considering our publishing 
policy, this matter of distribution of surplus profits 
should be thrown out of the account. 

There are certain principles which will be acknowl- 
edged by every one as determinative of the extent of 
such undertakings, the character of publications, and 
the make-up of the superintendence. The object of 
the church in the publication of books, reviews, and 
printing newspapers, tracts, Sunday-school journals, 
etc., was, — 

14 



158 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

First : To secure to its people a supply of such liter- 
ature as it deemed essential to their Christian education, 
and in harmony with its doctrines and usages. 

Second : To bring the cost of its publications to the 
lowest figures consistent with pecuniary safety, in order 
to meet the means of its members and to secure the 
largest circulation. 

Third : To secure for the management of such in- 
terests men experienced in the business, and a proper 
supervisory control of the management and the char- 
acter of the publications. 

Fourth : To restrict the capital invested to the needs 
of the business. 

Fifth : That annual reports of the operations, the re- 
sults, and the condition of such publishing operations 
should be issued for the information of the members. 

Sixth : All these principles grow out of and are sub- 
ordinate to the general principle that the church of 
Christ is intended to take care of the spiritual wants of 
man, and therefore should be, as far as possible, sepa- 
rated from secular interests, more especially those of 
the lower order, such as the making and holding of 
money. 

Without entering into any argument as to how far 
the action of the Book Agents during the past four or 
more years harmonizes with such principles, yet by a 
series of interrogatories some of the points in question 
may be more forcibly brought before the church. 

First : Does the church, through its agents, confine its 
publications to those books, papers, tracts, etc., which 
are essential to the education of its people as Christians, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 159 

and which would not be furnished at as low prices by 
the book-making trade? A glance at the catalogues 
of the two Book Concerns will answer this question. 
If these catalogues were subjected to the tests named 
they would not require many pages to cover their pub- 
lications. 

Second : How does the cost of publication compare 
with that of the trade ? While it is true that a mere 
majority of a sub-committee of the Book Committee in 
February, 1884,* reported favorably upon this question, 
yet two suggestions as to the value of their report will 
come up. 

First : This majority of the sub-committee was com- 
posed of two ministers and two laymen, who, with great 
care and to the extent of their knowledge and ability, 
made the best examination they could, but no member 
of the committee had any practical knowledge of the 
business. A sufficient answer to the conclusions of their 
report is, that it was not the kind of committee that a 
silent partner in such houses as Harper & Brothers, 
Lippincott's, or Appleton's would have selected to ex- 
amine into the economy of the management of their 
business. 

Second : Such a result is contrary to the experi- 
ence and judgment of all business men, which teaches 
that there are not the same inducements to energy 
and economy in a church institution, with two mil- 
lions of readers, and a monopoly of a large class of 
publications, as the individual publisher has, who com- 

* See report of minority of the sub-committee published in the 
Daily Christian Advocate, May 6, 1884. 



160 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

petes in the open market for the sale of his produc- 
tions. Is not this also proven by the fact that other 
publishers will make better terms with popular Meth- 
odist authors than the Book Agents? Is it, then, any 
wonder that it is said by men who understand the 
business, that the publications of the Book Concern are 
not furnished to the church at as low prices as they 
might be ? The management of the publishing interests 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church is not singular in 
this respect. The same facts are believed to be true as 
to the cost of the publications of the American Bible 
Society, the Presbyterian Board, the Baptist Publication 
Society, the Sunday-School Union, and the American 
Tract Society. The difficulty is inherent in the use of 
paid agents without competent supervision. 

Third : What moral right has the church to enter 
into a general publishing business as a money-making 
operation ; and even more than this, to enter into com- 
petition with private printers for job work ? The West- 
ern Book Agents reported to the General Conference of 
1884 that in the previous four years they had done 
nearly three hundred thousand dollars 7 worth of such 
work, with the excuse that the profits on it cheapened 
the cost of regular publications. It is understood that 
the New York agents do no work for others. The 
laity will ask, Is this right? Has the ministry fallen 
so low as to hunt up job work and take it away from 
some hard-working man in the business, who is striving 
to raise his family and train them in righteousness? 
The laity will also ask, Is it requisite in order to secure 
Methodist literature, that the agents should go outside 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 161 

of church wants and enter into the general work of pub- 
lishers as well as of job printers? Must they violate 
the broad principles of right and propriety that a few 
pennies may be saved in the cost of a book, or that the 
worn-out preacher may realize a part of a penny more 
in his annual dole ? Are not the members of the church 
able and willing to pay for church literature its cost 
when the business is conducted on Christian principles? 

So far as the principle is involved, could not the 
General Conference, for the church, as well enter into 
the dry-goods business in competition with Messrs. 
Arnold, Constable & Co., into the iron business in com- 
petition with Messrs. J. B. & J. M. Cornell, into the 
Atlantic steamship business in competition with the 
North German Lloyd Company, or into the cheap 
clothing business in competition with the Bowery Jew ? 

Fourth : The question will be asked, With a joint 
capital in the two Book Concerns of $1,607,450.30, 
would not the interests of the church be promoted by 
a union of the two Concerns in New York and Cincin- 
nati? Would not such union increase the possible 
economies and lessen the losses and the capital required 
to carry on the business ? If the united interests were 
kept within proper bounds in the character of their 
publications and work, would not much less capital be 
required ? If the work now done under the different 
agents were done by contract, could not this capital be 
yet further reduced, and the surplus divided among the 
needy ministers ? Is it necessary and prudent that the 
church should own such large amounts of real estate in 
the cities of New York and Cincinnati ? 
I 14* 



162 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

Amounting in New York to $682,250 

" " Cincinnati to 299,000 

Making a total of $981,250 



What defence can there be for placing the Book 
Agents' office in a building at 805 Broadway, New 
York, costing nearly one million of dollars, while the 
great book-store of Methodism occupies the cellar ? 

The board of the Missionary Society, of the Sun- 
day-School Union, the editor of the Quarterly Review, 
and the book-room agents and other officers, could 
be accommodated quite as well in rooms that would 
cost very much less money, and thereby enable the 
agents to elevate their salesroom to a ground-floor, not 
on Broadway, which is accepted as being no longer a 
desirable location for a retail book-store, but to place it 
in a suitable building in the vicinity of the leading 
book-houses. Such a change would contribute to in- 
crease the business and profits and thereby decrease the 
losses which, it is understood, are now incurred in the 
retail department of the Book Concern. If the am- 
bition of the New York ministry and laity demands 
such a grand property as 805 Broadway, let them 
pay for it; the members of the church should not 
be called on to contribute. A very striking evidence 
of the bad management of these agencies is in their 
valuation of the amount due them for sales. The New 
York agents report (1883) that on an amount of credits 
of $378,883.77 they expect to lose twenty per cent., 
or $75,766.75. Such losses would ruin any publish- 
ing-house in the trade. Then, again, if it were not 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 163 

for these losses, the profit for 1883 would have been 
$152,946.10, or twelve and seven-tenths per cent, on its 
capital of $1,202,593.07. These figures affect only the 
New York office. The same general facts probably 
exist in the Western agency. The system of using 
depositories or branch book-stores in other cities has 
been not only unnecessary and a source of almost con- 
tinued expense, but such stores have interfered with 
the sale of our books in the general market, and there- 
by have been in antagonism with an important duty 
of the church, and one object of the creation of the 
Book Concerns, viz., the general dissemination of books 
explaining and defending our doctrines, polity, and 
usages, including our general literature, among the 
people. This exclusion tends to force Methodist authors 
to seek other publishers than the Book Agents. These 
suggestions and criticisms, taken together, demonstrate 
the need of a thorough purging in the management of 
the Book Concerns, and the necessity of employing 
competent men to take charge of them. 

As to the character of the management of these 
interests, the laity will quickly decide that whatever 
may be the extent of the publishing operations of the 
church, and as their management will have to be 
through agents, it will be policy and economy to se- 
cure as agents men who are qualified for the places by 
education and business training. The figures just given 
demonstrate this necessity. The laymen well under- 
stand that the proper superintendency of such a busi- 
ness requires two grades of ability, — the one the re- 
quired practical knowledge of the book trade and 



164 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

manufacture, and the other business tact, ability to 
manage finances, and a good judgment of the literary 
wants of the church. 

The laity will also ask, What peculiar propriety is 
there in electing an effective travelling preacher as an 
agent to fill either of these positions? It is under- 
stood why this was done at an early day, but why 
should it be done now, when talent and acquirements 
of all kinds are so abundant ? The simple fact is, the 
church has not thought about it. The force of habit 
has continued the early practice, and the ministry will 
not intervene, for the places are considered desirable 
for profit, influence, and honor. 

When the laity look into the question, they will find 
that the duties of the agents are purely secular, and 
therefore that the agency is no place for an effective 
minister, called to preach Christ and him crucified ; that 
the theological questions are referred to the editor of the 
Quarterly Review and the secretary of the Sunday-School 
Union as literary experts; that the demand of the church 
or of the market for books can be better understood by 
a layman brought up in the trade than by a preacher. 
That there is no law of need which requires that an 
agent should be a preacher is proven by the fact that 
the church has had for a number of years, and now 
has, one layman as agent in New York. They will 
note the fact that in the trade the publishers of law- 
books are not lawyers, nor of medical works, doctors, 
nor of scientific books, doctors of philosophy, nor of 
works in the ancient and modern languages, professors 
of languages, nor of literary works, authors, nor of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 165 

theological works, ministers. Successful publishers 
require rare talent in dealing with authors and acute- 
ness in understanding the wants of the market. They 
employ experts or proficients in the several depart- 
ments to examine manuscript and to edit books. 
Therefore there is no reason why, primarily, effective 
ministers should be chosen as agents. 

The next question the laity will inquire into is the 
fitness of an applicant for the place of agent. This is 
a fair question and will harm no one, for men are not 
elected to office without their consent and desire. They 
will ask as to his knowledge of the practical part of 
the business, his experience with men, his habits of 
economy. They will also ask as to his peculiar fitness 
for the general duties of a publisher ; how great has 
been his experience ; in what house he was raised ; the 
judgment of those who have been associated with him 
in business. If it should happen that an effective trav- 
elling preacher possesses the required qualifications and 
has misinterpreted his call, let him first accept a local 
relation and then be elected. 

If the General Conferences had asked these questions 
in the past twenty years, how many of the agents would 
have failed of an election ! yet every layman will agree 
as to their propriety. 

The qualifications of proper agents will suggest to 
the laity the incompetency of a General Conference to 
judiciously select them by a majority vote. Common 
sense dictates that they should be chosen by the Book 
Committee, and that this committee should be carefully 
selected for the peculiar fitness of its members for their 



166 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

duties, without regard to territorial boundaries or Con- 
ference districts ; and further, that this committee should 
consist principally of laymen, with enough of the minis- 
terial element to keep their theology safe with the aid of 
the literary experts. By adopting these suggestions the 
publishing interests of the church would be brought 
within safe limits and better results be secured, while 
the church would be saved from the dangers that ac- 
company the admixture of spiritual matters with the 
secular object of making money. 

There is another matter of interest to the church 
connected with this habit of electing ministers as agents 
which may be referred to here, but will be more fully 
treated hereafter; it is found in its influence on the 
ministers and on the church. 

The office of Book Agent is in itself a temptation to 
many men to leave the ministry. If they are useful 
ministers the church cannot spare them from the pulpit ; 
and if they are not useful or have lost their usefulness, 
then they ought not to continue in the ranks of the 
ministry, and the probabilities are against their being 
successful in a business which is recognized to be close 
and hazardous. The place of a Book Agent should not 
be filled by men past middle life or played-out men ; 
when a minister becomes an expert book publisher, 
he has lost his adaptation to the travelling ministry. 
Secular and money questions will occupy his time so 
thoroughly that preparation for ministerial service will 
be interfered with. Why is it that ministers who have 
held official positions in the church, places that are 
largely secular in their working, so rarely re-enter the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 167 

active work of the ministry ? Why is it that ministerial 
agents of church boards generally meet empty houses ? 
The reader can answer. 

RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS. 

The policy of the church as to the number and char- 
acter of the religious newspapers published under its 
authority merits careful consideration. The newspapers 
are the popular teachers, distributors of general knowl- 
edge, recorders of current history, and express public 
opinion. 

They furnish a running commentary on the doings 
of the world ; they are indispensable to an active and 
vigorous church ; they promulgate and defend its teach- 
ings and usages; through them the members should 
be free to communicate their well-digested thoughts as 
to its every interest ; they furnish the pabulum on which 
many families acquire all their knowledge of Christian 
work and of the world's life ; they do much to promote 
the unity of the church; their influence for good is 
probably greater in proportion to cost than any other 
outside work of the church. 

The providing such a means of influence is, then, one 
of the most important duties of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. How this can be done, within the prov- 
ince of a church, is the question that it is proposed now 
to discuss. 

The adopted policy of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, for more than a half-century, has been to 
provide its members with religious newspapers. This 
policy was based on a recognition of the same prin- 



168 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ciple which led the church to establish the Book Con- 
cerns, — viz., its duty to provide proper instruction and 
reading for the people. The result has been that there 
are now ten weekly religious newspapers published 
under its control. 

While it is conceded that it is the duty of the church 
to take care that its people may have proper religious 
books to read ; and that with a church so widely ex- 
tended and so intimately connected in interest as ours, 
it should have one or two newspapers of the highest 
character; yet, whether the adopted policy of the 
church, of furnishing the members with all their re- 
ligious newspapers, is wise, is quite another question. 
If this policy is to be continued, then, as the mem- 
bership of the church increases in all directions, at 
home and abroad, there must come, in time, a large 
increase in their number. The different sections of 
this country must be supplied, as well as the mem- 
bers in foreign lands.* If such addition to their num- 
ber is to be in the ratio of the present Conference 
papers, in place of ten there will be twenty, thirty, or 
forty. An accompanying result of this would be the 
issue of a flood of inferior local papers to supply home 
news. This tendency is now apparent, and will in- 
crease as local interests may require. 

The counter-policies that may be suggested are to 
leave the publication of religious newspapers exclu- 
sively to private enterprise, as is done by the other 

* The action of the recent Conferences in India shows how 
strongly the tendency and desire are to have the news- and other 
published papers for their local uses and interests. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 1(39 

denominations, or that the church should control one 
or two papers, leaving to private enterprise the fur- 
nishing of papers for local circulation. 

The reasons favoring the first plan of supplying all 
the wants of the church in religious newspapers, are, 
that by it the church secures a supply of reading for 
its members; that the church determines the char- 
acter of the teaching, forms the opinions of its mem- 
bers, and furnishes the papers at a low price. The 
first and last reasons, while partially true, yet are met 
by the fact that there is now no difficulty in securing 
publishers of newspapers under Methodist patronage, 
if they can have a fair field, and are not handicapped 
by the official press. There is sufficient private enter- 
prise to meet all the wants of the members at a fair 
price. When anything is given to the people under 
cost it must be as a charity, a mission work, or with 
the expectation of future profit; if the church pub- 
lishes papers at a loss for the use of a people who can 
afford to pay a fair price, then it is a waste of money 
contributed for other purposes. Such publication at a 
loss may be proper for purely mission work, but the 
loss should be charged to the missionary treasury. The 
expectation of future profit may be a good business 
reason, if not carried too far. But, as to the second 
reason, which influences the present policy of the 
church, there is more ground for question. That the 
character of the religious teaching of" the newspapers 
read by our people should be conserved by the over- 
sight of the church seems almost an axiom; yet, owing 
to the fact that the publication of so many papers pre- 
h 15 



170 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

vents the establishment of others, of equal or higher 
character, by private enterprise, the result is produced 
that the sole control of the religious newspapers of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church is in the ministry, through 
the election of the editors by the General Conference. 

Out' of the seeming axiom just named there spring 
the important questions, Whether the entire church 
press should be under the control of the ministry? 
Should the ministers have the exclusive power of form- 
ing the opinions of the church? Should they have 
the power, through their control of the press, of pre- 
venting the full and free discussion of any question 
connected with the interests of Methodism ? Do they 
not by this power have in their grasp its usefulness; 
indeed, its life? Does not this fact of the acknowl- 
edged power of the ministry give the editors of the 
church papers an influence in the church that they 
should not have ? Is it not the record of history that 
whenever such power has existed it has inevitably 
led to its abuse? Are not rings, as they are vulgarly 
called, the immediate result of such united influence 
and power? Are not the unholy ambitions of men 
excited under such conditions ? Are not such editors 
in danger of yielding to the force of temptation and 
becoming so demoralized that the end thereof is dis- 
grace to themselves and injury to the church? If a 
favorable answer cannot be given to these queries, 
what can be hoped for, with the future extension of 
the church and its system of church papers, scattered 
all over a vaunted oecumenical Methodism? 

What will be the character of the members of the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 171 

Methodist Episcopal Church who will continue to be 
willing to have their mouths thus shut upon all ques- 
tions of church government or policy, or what kind 
of ministers will the church have, who dare not ex- 
press a thought contrary to that of the ring that may 
control the press ? How does a muzzled press harmo- 
nize with the teaching of republicanism, that a free 
press must exist in a free country? Absolute govern- 
ments control : free governments encourage the press. 
The world gains in wisdom by the variety of thoughts 
and suggestions made in free discussion. There is no 
advance in thought through a muzzled press. A muz- 
zled press narrows its readers in mind, thought, ex- 
perience, and influence ; a free press enlarges the mind, 
broadens the thought, deepens the experience, of its 
readers. The church is and must be the loser by the 
absence of free discussion. All these objections exist 
to-day as to the church newspapers. 

There is another view of this question of the control 
of the teachings of the press. The apparent axiomatic 
truth alluded to is the basis on which the Church of 
Rome has been built. It squarely assumes the right 
to say what books shall be read by its people, what their 
literature shall be; the Bible, if read at all, must be 
read as printed by its translation of the early manu- 
scripts. But it does not assume to directly control the 
religious newspapers ; they are left free. Neither the 
English Church in England, nor the Presbyterian 
Churches in the United States, nor any evangelical 
denomination assumes to furnish its people with the re- 
ligious newspaper. While the ministers of the Meth- 



172 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

odist Episcopal Church, like their brethren in the Cath- 
olic priesthood, control the organization of their church, 
its real estate (except in certain States), and its purse, 
yet they have a power, beyond the ambition of the Pope 
at Eome, in their absolute control of the church press, 
by furnishing not only the literature, but the very 
newspapers their members shall read. 

Ministers well understand the power of the re- 
ligious press in fostering inquiries, creating thought, 
and forming opinion, as well as the narrowing and un- 
healthy influence of the presentation of one side only 
of a question, of creating prejudice against existing 
church laws, or favor for proposed changes, of a 
failure to tell the whole truth, or of the many evils 
that accompany the exclusive power to reach and in- 
fluence a confiding people through the papers they 
read. Is it not, then, clear that the continuation of the 
present policy will increase the danger to the church 
from the ministry as a body, — by the increase of elective 
officers ; by the influence of increased amount of capital 
employed ; by the tendencies of such increase of official 
places to create rings, centralize influence, and concen- 
trate power; by unwise legislation through control of 
minds uneducated by free discussion, and by the dis- 
satisfaction that will be felt by many of the ministry 
and laity? 

If, then, this description of the results of the con- 
tinuation of the present policy of the church as to its 
religious papers is correct, it becomes an important in- 
quiry to know what should be done to escape these 
dangers. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 173 

The other two suggestions must then be examined : 
First : That the supply of such papers should be left 
free, or that no papers should be published by the 
church. Second : That the church should publish one 
or more papers for general circulation, leaving to pri- 
vate enterprise to supply local necessities. These prop- 
ositions may be considered together. The wisdom 
of the church, in securing to the membership through 
the religious newspaper a general knowledge of its 
passing history, of what is being done in the various 
fields of church work, cannot be questioned. Nor is 
the wisdom to be doubted of having a certain medium 
of bringing before the members the demands of Christ's 
cause, as they open to the church ; a medium for the 
defence of the church, a fitting place for discussion of 
all questions of morals and religion, and, properly, all 
questions of polity ; of keeping a record of the saints 
that are passing away ; and of doing all the work that 
is accepted as the proper duty of such papers. One 
properly-prepared paper would supply the demands 
just noted and meet the wants of the church, and 
with this provision its duty ends. The further wants 
of the members should be left to private enterprise. 
There would then be established as needed independent 
newspapers of a suitable character to meet local wants. 
Such papers would maintain a higher rank than the 
present Conference papers, and it would give an opening 
for one or more of the highest character. Such papers 
would be untrammelled by the presence of local church 
papers under ministerial control, and a free discussion 
of church policy and interests would be possible. The 

15* 



174 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

presence of such a press would force proper treatment 
of all contributors by the authorized church paper, and 
secure in it a free expression of opinion. Under the 
present policy all the efforts to establish independent 
Methodist newspapers have failed, with the exception 
of the Zion , s Herald, which has had a vigorous life for 
many years, due to causes that are not necessary to 
name. 

The Methodist, to which the laity of the church owe 
the introduction of lay representation in the General 
Conference in 1872, could not be sustained after the 
realization of its great work. It was felt -as a conserv- 
ative power, and exerted a strong influence in pre- 
venting unwise changes in the discipline and polity of 
the church. The control of the church press was 
changed by the General Conference of 1876, through 
its influence on the mind of the church. The prin- 
cipal church paper was forced to raise its literary 
standard to meet that of its competitor. 

The Methodist, an honor to its founders, did a grand 
work for the church ; yet it could not be sustained 
against the influence of the church papers, the church 
rings, the Book-Room influences, and the hostility of a 
party in the ministry. The possibility of a repetition 
of such influence can only be prevented, first, by the 
removal of such power, and next, by the encouragement 
of an independent press. 

By such a policy our members would be better 
served by having one first-class paper, which should 
exceed in value any religious newspaper now published. 
It would have behind it a membership of over two 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 175 

millions, and, if properly conducted, could be profitably 
sold at such low figures as to insure a very large circu- 
lation. Increase in quality brings decrease in price. 
To secure such a paper, there must be liberality on 
the part of the publishers and fitting ability in the edi- 
tor. He must not be the principal writer and strain 
his mind to produce variety. His business should be 
to edit the papers of other writers. 

The editors of the church press have very generally 
fallen into the grave error of making the papers too 
personal as to themselves. In newspapers published by 
private individuals there need be no limit ; it is a ques- 
tion between them and their readers. But a paper pub- 
lished by a church for the education and edification of 
its members should not be used for the glorification of 
its editor, or as the medium of communicating his views 
on any and all subjects. The ablest editors rarely con- 
tribute to their own papers, and they leave no marks in 
their writings to identify them ; individuality is buried. 
The influence of the paper depends on the ability of its 
editorials, its communications, and correspondence. This 
personal character of the Methodist Church press has 
had a tendency to lower the respect for the editors, for 
the press, and for the church ; it has always been in 
bad taste and has displayed an unfortunate ignorance 
of the proprieties of the place, and the object and duties 
for which an editor was chosen. Again, there is no 
need that an editor of a religious paper should be a 
preacher. Dr. Bond, a layman, had a better style of 
editorial writing than any editor of the Advocate, before 
or since his time. In fact, ministers as a class are not 



176 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the best writers for the press ; their style partakes too 
much of the volubility of the pulpit; the same ob- 
jection holds good as to orators and ready speech- 
makers. A certain condensation in language, accuracy 
in use of words and crispness of thought, are requisite 
to the successful newspaper writer ; of these few men 
are the masters. The editorials of Dr. Bond, of Horace 
Greeley, and of Dr. Crooks illustrate this idea. The 
church will be the gainer by thus relieving the active 
ministry from any demand for their services as editors. 
The church would thus secure a local press that would 
be suited to the wants of each district of country, and in 
literary character be in advance of the present average 
of Conference papers. This would be aided by the 
dependence of the owners of such a press on their own 
efforts for success ; they would have no treasury of a 
rich church behind them. The church would be saved 
from the increasing number of very inferior local papers 
that are springing up in the Conferences under the 
present policy ; they cost many times more than a good 
paper in proportion to value, and this cost prevents 
many of their subscribers from taking in addition the 
better papers of the church. This evil of local papers 
is growing so rapidly that the last General Conference 
practically re-enacted the following resolution: "That 
the Annual Conferences are affectionately and earnestly 
requested not to establish any more Conference papers, 
and when such papers exist, to discontinue them when 
it can be done consistently with existing obligations." 
(Discipline, 1884, p. 351.) This plan for furnishing 
our members with religious newspapers would give 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 177 

fair play to discussion and to the expression of their 
multitudinous opinions that would relieve the church 
as the thunder-storm relieves the atmosphere of press- 
ure. It would educate the membership in all direc- 
tions, and would fully meet the wants of the church. 
There need be no fear of the results of such freedom 
of the press. The church is too strongly planted in the 
hearts of the laity to permit evil to come to it through 
their support of independent papers. 

That no organized body in the church should be au- 
thorized to publish newspapers, except under the direct 
authority and control of the General Conference, needs 
no proof. 

Taking all things into consideration, it is a safe infer- 
ence that the safety and prosperity of the church, both 
largely involved in the decision of this question, would 
be secured and promoted by a change of the policy of 
the publication of newspapers as recommended. Finally, 
the same objection lies to the election of editors by the 
General Conference as to that of Book Agents, and en- 
forces the argument that such selection should be made 
by the Book Committee. It is practically out of the 
question to depend on the multitude of a General Con- 
ference to make a good selection of so important an 
official and one requiring such peculiar qualifications. 

QUARTERLY REVIEW. 

A church properly equipped for the education of its 
ministers and members requires, in addition to a pro- 
vision for the elaborate discussion of religious questions 
in the book and the provision of a weekly press, a 



178 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

periodical of the style and character of the leading 
reviews of this country and Europe. It should be of 
the highest scholastic and literary character, that the 
church may contribute its share to the investigations 
and learning of the world. A part of the work of 
such a review should be to note and discuss the ad- 
vancement of science, the developments of the buried 
past, the researches and discoveries of the learned, the 
results of the investigations into the original texts of 
the word of God, the collateral arguments these afford 
to enforce the truths of the Bible, and the preparation 
of the people for the coming of Jesus Christ; the 
elucidation of many of his teachings which in the past 
were uncertain in their meaning, making the clearer 
understanding and the acceptation of the doctrine both 
possible and practical. It should be a part of its work 
also to note, discuss, and expose the errors taught 
by many professing and non-professing Christians ; to 
keep its readers in connection with the learning of the 
day ; and, above all, to be a defender of Christianity 
and its civilization. Such a periodical would offer a 
fitting home for the scholarly work of our teachers and 
students. It is necessary as a defence of our church 
polity and faith. The defence of the faith of a church 
depends on the learning as well as on the piety of its 
teachers. The establishment of such a "Review" 
would be an evidence that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is willing to recognize and perform all its duties. 
If there are not in the church a sufficient number 
of writers to sustain such a Review with their own 
productions, then there is the greater need that other 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 179 

writers should be employed to educate the Methodist 
clergy and people in the higher branches of theological 
literature. These remarks are suggested by the un- 
fortunate action of the recent General Conference in 
not providing for this want of the church. 

The passing out of the former editor, who, after his 
years of earnest work, sought rest, was a fitting oppor- 
tunity to replace the Quarterly Review on the level it 
held in 1856, under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. 
John McClintock. 

It may be that the ministerial delegates of the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1884 had some remembrance of the 
action of the Indianapolis Conference of 1856, when 
it declined to re-elect that distinguished minister of 
God to the editorship of the Quarterly Review because 
its literary character was too high and its articles were 
too learned for the average minister. The result was 
attained with an annual deficit in the revenues and the 
desired lower standard of the Review. But with the 
lapse of twenty-eight years, and the higher education 
of the ministry, it could have reasonably been ex- 
pected that the General Conference would make a 
point of the selection of some younger man who was 
fully competent, and had in all probability several 
years of good work before him, to take charge of the 
Review and restore it to its lost position of a learned 
and influential journal. If this had been done there 
would have been no trouble as to its circulation, nor 
any deficiency in cost. It is folly to expect that edu- 
cated men and earnest students will be willing to ac- 
cept very common fare when so many richly-spread 



180 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

tables are offered them by other churches. The Gen- 
eral Conference failed to appreciate the interests of the 
ministry, and of the church at large, by not making 
proper provision for their representative magazine, 
the Quarterly Review.* 

So much for the practical side of this question of the 
publishing interests. 

There is another yet more important consideration 
which will influence the church in deciding upon the 
policy of continuing the Book Concerns, viz., the 
danger to the church from the gathering together of 
so many official representatives in one building and in 
one city, Man is a gregarious animal, and officials are 
men, and are tempted to unite and help each other to 
retain their places. To do this involves the temp- 
tation to combine to govern the church. Of such 
combinations the Book-Rooms in the past have been the 
centre. The use of the credit of the church by an 
agent in New York ; the stealings and demoralization 
of employes; the unholy attempt to crush a man as 
honest as steel, and as firm in the right as the ever- 
lasting rocks, because he dared expose such use and 
such frauds, developed the power of such a combina- 
tion of officials with their parasites. It showed the 
danger to the church of the control of these interests 

* Since the above was written the further lowering of the 
standard of the Quarterly Review has been consummated, and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, with its ministry, its member- 
ship, its universities, colleges, theological schools, etc., is left 
without a representative magazine in the higher circle of theo- 
logical and learned utterances. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 181 

by the ministers, and the questionable prudence or wis- 
dom of permitting, unless under the highest necessity, 
such an amount of property and such a large capital 
in money to accumulate in any one place. 

It is acknowledged, with pleasure, that there have 
been in recent years great advances made in the man- 
agement of the Book Concern in New York. The 
clear-minded Nelson with his business habits com- 
menced changes in its policy which have been vigor- 
ously followed up by Mr. Phillips, and this branch of 
the Book Concern is undoubtedly doing better work 
and at lower prices and on surer business principles than 
ever before. This result of the work of these two lay- 
men (for Dr. Nelson was practically a layman) is a proof 
of the position taken in these pages, that the manage- 
ment of the Book Concerns should be under the control 
of laymen educated to the business: the policy regu- 
lating the scope of the business is another matter. 

Further, it is highly creditable to the agents of both 
Concerns that for the last twelve years no shadow of 
suspicion as to their integrity has been thrown on any 
of them, but this is no argument or security for the 
future. There is in the very nature of such insti- 
tutions a temptation to those who are in office to retain 
their places ; to many who are out to get possession 
of them ; and to the ambitious, to gain the control of 
them as a means of securing greater power and higher 
positions in the church. Of the force of this latter 
temptation the history of the church is full of ex- 
amples, and as these publishing interests develop with 
the growth of the country and the additions to the mem- 

16 



182 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

bership, so will the temptation to make a bad use of 
official places increase. The Church of Christ was 
never intended to be degraded to a money-making ma- 
chine, or to be used as a means of putting men up or 
down. For all such misuse a fitting penalty will be 
incurred. 

The last General Conference, by formal change of 
Discipline, adopted the argument of this paper by pro- 
viding that the editors of the Reviews and newspapers 
published by the Book Agents may be " either ministers 
or members of the Methodist Episcopal Church" (Dis- 
cipline, page 339). The same rule as to Book Agents 
has been in operation for some years. This action of 
the General Conference is important, as it reveals the 
facts : 

First : That in the judgment of the Conference 
there are men in both orders, clerical and lay, compe- 
tent to fill such places. 

Secondly : That it does not require the use of min- 
isterial education or functions to properly perform the 
duties of such places. 

Thirdly : It is a fair inference from the above that 
when a minister, called of God to preach His gospel, 
performs the duties of an editor he is acting as a lay- 
man. 

Fourthly : That when an effective itinerant minister 
accepts such a place, for whatever good reason, and such 
may exist, he should be placed in a suspended list or 
take rank as a local preacher. 

The same arguments apply to Book Agents. These 
statements, expositions, and suggestions as to the gen- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 183 

eral benevolent and publishing work of the church 
reveal, if nothing more, the necessity that exists for a 
thorough revision of the policy of the church in respect 
thereto. To make the best use of these powers for 
good will require a reconstruction of their manage- 
ment, of their scope of work, and, to a great extent, 
of the principles on which most of them are now based 
and managed. 



184 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 



CHAPTER IY. 

The injury that will result to the church from temptations to 
which the ministry are subjected, which while personal, yet 
have an influence on the church, and also from the tendency 
to form alliances for securing influence and control for their 
benefit as a class, or party. 

FIRST: THE MINISTRY AS A CLASS. 

A very potent argument in favor of the introduc- 
tion of lay representatives into all the councils, boards, 
and business of the Methodist Episcopal Church is 
to be found in the dangers that may come from the 
combined action of the ministry as a class. The his- 
tory of the world is full of the errors and wrongs 
committed against the people by Pagan and Roman 
priests and the ministers of the Protestant Churches. 
In no single instance have they had the supremacy for 
a long time without abusing it. It began within a few 
years after the death of the Apostles, and has continued 
until this day. In the churches, other than the papal 
and the Methodist Episcopal, the people have secured 
protection, by having the control of the church equally 
divided between the laity and the clergy. This division 
of authority has in all instances, when fairly conducted, 
resulted to the benefit of both parties. 

The dangers to be apprehended by the continuance 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 185 

of the control of the ministry over the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church are those exemplified in the history of the 
Roman Catholic Church, in the earliest English Church, 
and so far as such power has been exercised, in other 
churches. How it works will be seen by some exam- 
ples of the temptations to which the ministers of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church are peculiarly liable. 

SECOND : POLITICAL TEMPTATIONS AND LOSS OP AG- 
GRESSIVENESS. 

In an early part of this paper allusion was made to 
the dangers to the usefulness of the church as a body, 
arising from the temptation to engage in political par- 
tisanship and from decreased aggressiveness. It may 
be well to notice more particularly the injurious influ- 
ence these temptations have on the ministry. 

The extent of the first danger will be readily com- 
prehended by any one who has observed how readily 
the ministers of the different denominations are led into 
political and semi-political controversies. This is a 
result of the assumed influence of the ministers over 
the members of the churches. The Methodist min- 
isters being supposed to understand the masses of the 
people and to have most direct access to and influence 
over them, their opinions are used very freely by 
politicians. Designing politicians of the baser sort, 
who strive to work up for selfish purposes some new 
party on moral grounds, make a direct effort to secure 
Methodist ministers as their agents, because on all 
moral and religious questions the clergy are regarded 
as leaders of the people. The strength of this tempta- 

16* 



186 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

tion is found in the ease with which ministers abandon 
their proper duties, and become partisan temperance 
and moral reform lecturers, political speech makers, 
office-holders, etc. 

It bodes no good to the church when its ministry, or 
any considerable proportion of it, are smitten with the 
love of political influence, are flattered by men, who 
first use and then despise them, for their lack of fidelity 
to their calling. This is no thoughtless suggestion of 
danger, because the efforts that are constantly being 
made to use their influence for party purposes are 
well understood. They form a well-known element 
in political calculations, and the church is scarcely 
aware how many yield to the temptation. 

As the church is made up of individual members, 
any peril that threatens the whole body from without 
will reach each member ; and any danger that threatens 
the whole body from its inner life will first be felt by 
the individual members. Dangers from without can 
be more readily met than those that have their rise 
in the members of the body. The danger of being 
enticed into political strife owes its strength to the 
ambition of the individual members ; the danger from 
the loss of an aggressive spirit has its origin in the 
decay of spiritual life in the ministry and membership. 
The temptations that come in this line to the ministers 
are insidious ; they come with success and with public 
favor. Worldly influences gathering around them, 
they do not feel so deeply that the gospel, committed 
to their charge, is intended for the poor in this world's 
goods. A comfortable church, a well-to-do people, and 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 187 

a fair support are more pleasant and attractive than a 
mission to the poor. The fact that this is a natural 
preference includes the danger that is in it. Jesus 
Christ, in sending forth his disciples, did not wish them 
to follow their natural preferences, but the reverse ; 
the law to them was to go wherever man was to be 
found and to preach the gospel to him. The church 
will have to protect its ministry against the influence 
of these temptations. 

THIRD: UNACCEPTABLE MINISTERS. 

The third danger arises from the efforts of minis- 
ters who have lost their usefulness to retain their official 
connection with the Annual Conferences. The temp- 
tation comes to them through the value of their claim 
to an appointment ; that is, for their support and the 
financial aid they may be entitled to as members of aid 
societies, or recipients of the moneys contributed for the 
help of the worthy. Such men are in the way of other 
ministers and are an incubus on the church ; they lower 
it in public estimation and stand in the way of its 
progress. 

To retain the ministry in the regular work, with a 
scant and uncertain support, was one of the difficulties 
of the church in its early days, and, as a consequence, 
many were forced to locate. That this difficulty no 
longer exists is a cause for thankfulness. The pro- 
vision of the law of the church which gives to every 
minister, in good standing, an appointment, secures to 
him a better average support, taking all things into 



188 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

consideration, than is received by the ministers of any 
other church. 

This certain support has been given as one jreason 
why it is so hard to get rid of many men in the Con- 
ferences who have outlived their usefulness. It needs 
no argument to show how degrading it is to the man- 
hood and Christian character of a preacher who holds 
to his place in the Conference for its money, when he 
knows that he is no longer acceptable to the people, 
and that his usefulness as a minister has ceased. They, 
too, often forget that the church was not intended for 
an indolent man's refuge, or as an eleemosynary institu- 
tion, nor a home for men who fail to perform the work 
the church expected and that they agreed to do when 
they were admitted to its ministry. The contract be- 
tween the church and the minister which secured the 
latter a place to work in, a support while working, and 
some aid in his declining years, is broken when the 
minister ceases through his own fault to do the full 
service of a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

If the law of the church could be made so searching 
that every member of a Conference who was not actively 
and successfully engaged in the service of the church 
should lose his membership, be located or dropped 
from the ministry, it would do much to relieve many 
of them from their false position. The older Confer- 
ences are loaded down with unacceptable men. They 
claim all the rights and powers of the active and useful 
men : the right to take part in the deliberations of the 
Annual Conferences ; the right to vote ; to be elected 
to the General Conference ; to share in the contribu- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 189 

tions made for the relief of the worthy, and to be 
counted in the number which gives a General Confer- 
ence representative ; and when other means of support 
fail, to ask, if supernumeraries, to be restored to the 
active list. 

In this class of the ministry are to be found the jeal- 
ous, the discontented, and the conceited. They are the 
principal complainants against the bishops and presiding 
elders for the character of their appointments. They 
find fault with the church government, because it in- 
volves in the performance of their duties some self- 
denial and some religious experience. Their work is 
formally done, without life or interest. The collection 
of their stipend is the one thing they faithfully look 
after. These men favor the extension of the time of 
service. They object to running the gauntlet of accepta- 
bility every two or three years. This class of the min- 
istry are an injury to the church, and their presence in 
an Annual Conference is an injustice to the active min- 
isters. The Conferences need a thorough cleaning out 
of such thistles : they choke the growing grain. 

How to get rid of these men has been and is yet a 
problem. General Conferences have struggled with it 
without much success ; their plans have been thwarted 
by the members of the Annual Conferences. The 
suggestion hereinbefore made, that all membership 
in an Annual Conference should be confined to certain 
classes of the ministry, who are accepted as being 
properly employed in the teaching, preaching, and pas- 
toral service of the church, and in the care of its benev- 
olent interests, would meet this case of unacceptable 



190 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ministers. In this way they might retain their mem- 
bership in the ministry or could become local preachers. 

FOURTH: SECULARIZATION OF THE MINISTRY. 

A fourth danger to the ministers arises from the 
force of the temptation to abandon their proper work 
for official positions and secular employment. 

As the Methodist Episcopal Church increased in 
numbers, intelligence, and wealth, God gave it a posi- 
tion of corresponding influence, and opened to it vari- 
ous fields of labor in the way of missionary and 
benevolent work, church building, educating its people 
in academies, colleges, and theological schools ; in 
teaching the young the Bible; in providing religious 
newspapers, tracts, and in the preparation and publi- 
cation of proper magazines and books. To do the 
work in this widely-extended field, the ministers were 
at hand, with seemingly the best-suited talents and 
acquirements for such work, and their services could 
be obtained at the lowest price. Very naturally the 
secretaries, professors, editors, and publishers were 
chosen from that body; indeed, there was a neces- 
sity for their temporary use. This use, this filling 
such offices from the ministry, has gone on during the 
years without question, until now the holding of these 
places has acquired an almost universal acceptance 
in the minds of the ministers as in some way their 
peculiar right. As such positions were originally 
filled by accomplished and able men, they naturally 
gained great influence in the church's councils; they 
were respected, trusted, and beloved by the member- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 191 

ship. But like many other customs that have grown 
out of the necessities of the case, this fitness has cre- 
ated a desire for official positions, which has reached 
a point where it has become an undue temptation to 
very many of the ministry to leave their proper work 
for almost any semi-religious or secular employment. 
For some years past the seemingly greatest source of 
interest in the meeting of a General Conference has not 
been what could be done to advance through the church 
the cause of the Master, but who should fill the offices. 
Or if this expression be too strong, the anxiety upon 
the point has divided the attention of the Conference 
with more important subjects. As the holders of Gen- 
eral Conference positions have generally been selected 
by the Annual Conferences as delegates to the General 
Conference, and, as the ambitious and leading men of 
the Annual Conferences are usually also delegates, it 
is evident that among the members of the General 
Conference there will be found few ministers who are 
not in some way hopeful of, or that stand a chance of, 
being selected for some one of the official or honorary 
positions. In the General Conference of 1884, two 
hundred and ten of the two hundred and sixty- 
five ministerial delegates received votes for some of- 
ficial position, and three hundred and seventy names 
were used for the one hundred and eighty-six of- 
ficial positions and honorary appointments. It is also 
a notable fact that it rarely occurs that any one is 
elected for a General Conference position who is not 
a member of that body. It does not require much 
thought to comprehend wherein or how such a desire 



192 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

for place, with its attendant electioneering, is injurious 
to the ministry. 

Some of the suggested recommendations would work 
very beneficially in the way of reducing this evil, by 
transferring the power of selecting the secretaries, edi- 
tors, and Book Agents to their respective boards and 
committees, and by introducing such safeguards as 
would render the choice of a bishop by unwise and 
improper means exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. 
But there is a more serious view. The time is rapidly 
coming, if not now, when the church will more care- 
fully investigate the propriety and the results of this 
holding of places by its preachers, and will ask why the 
pulpit and the pastorate should be deprived of the ser- 
vices of men to do work that could be as well done by 
laymen or local preachers. The church will ask, How 
can a minister, called of God to preach His gospel, ac- 
cept the office of editor, publisher, or an agency of any 
kind, always excepting the leading Bible societies, 
while he has the health and strength to do the work 
of a pastor, is acceptable to some church, and is sure of 
a reasonable support, and when there is no pressing 
church necessity for his leaving the proper work of a 
Christian minister? It is at this point where the 
temptation comes in to cause the chosen ones — the 
called of God — to lower their colors, forsake their 
high calling, and follow the dictates of ambition, of 
love of power, of influence, or of bodily comfort. It 
is easy to broaden out God's command to preach His 
gospel so as to include all these offices, and very many 
others, as part of their work. Many commands of Jesus 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 193 

Christ are made elastic enough, by the ingenuity of 
man, to cover more surface than was intended. There 
is danger to the ministry in this looseness of construc- 
tion and disposition to make Christ's call suit their 
preferences. 

When once the proper line of duty is left, no matter 
by how small a divergence, the way is opened to stretch 
it that it may cover the ordinary duties of a mem- 
ber of the church, and yet to claim that ministerial 
work is done, because, in some indirect and irregular 
way, the man may be preaching the gospel. If any 
effective minister can do as good work in the petty 
offices of tract agencies, book publishing, editing news- 
papers, etc., as he could in the regular work, then such 
fact is sufficient evidence why he should retire from 
the travelling ministry. The law of the church should 
be enforced at this point, and be reaffirmed by the pro- 
visions already suggested as to terms of membership in 
an Annual Conference. The anomalous position of 
many preachers in claiming to hold one place by the 
power of a certain call from God while performing the 
duties of another should not be permitted. It is a 
wrong to the church, to the laity, and to the active 
ministry. 

A further discussion of the meaning of "the call 
from God to preach the gospel," including its char- 
acter and extent, may help to put this question of 
holding church and secular offices in a clearer light. 
While a call to preach is fully accepted as placing on 
a man the performance of a certain duty, yet it is fair 
to recognize the fact that this call may be for a peculiar 
1 n 17 



194 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

work aDd for a certain time ; that it may be withdrawn 
or suspended, not necessarily from any want of fitness 
for continued service in preaching the gospel, or from 
unfaithfulness, but it may come from greater fitness for 
other work, through increased knowledge and greater 
wisdom ; or it may be affected by age, loss of health, 
of voice, or many other like and good reasons. A 
call to preach is not necessarily permanent and con- 
tinuous through life. The point desired to be made is, 
that when other work than teaching and preaching is 
to be done, even though it be in the Master's vineyard, 
and teaching and preaching are suspended, then such 
ministers should promptly rearrange their relation to 
the church to suit their new work. Such a change is 
consistent with the suspension or the withdrawal of " a 
call to preach." 

An analysis of the duties of some of the officials of 
the church will prove how incongruous they are with the 
work of the ministry, and will be the best defence of 
the proposition that their relations to the church should 
be changed. Take the case of an editor of a church 
newspaper. Is editing a religious newspaper preach- 
ing the gospel ? In any proper sense, is the preaching 
done in the paper, by the editorials, by religious essays, 
by extracts from old sermons, by witty puns and 
amusing stories, as effective as proper work in the 
pulpit? Does the paper make pastoral visits as often 
and just when needed ? Does it convince the impeni- 
tent, lead him to CI iris t, watch and aid him in his 
struggles to cut loose from the dominion of Satan? 
Does it point him to the simplicity of faith in Christ, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 195 

and tenderly care for him in his early experience? 
Does it visit the sick-bed, pray over the dying father, 
mother, wife, or child ? Does it offer the consolation 
which is reasonably expected of a sympathizing pas- 
tor ? Does it bury the dead ? In fine, is the editor 
of a paper performing the proper duties of a travelling 
minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church? Cer- 
tainly not. That he does no work which cannot be as 
well done by a layman is practically confessed by the 
Christian Advocate of December 4, 1884, wherein it 
is published "that the principal business of the Chris- 
tian Advocate, as stated in the prospectus, is to explain, 
illustrate, confirm, and, if necessary, defend Method- 
ism." This certainly is not preaching the gospel. The 
ability to defend the Methodist Church, or to explain, 
illustrate, and confirm her teachings and customs, is 
not confined to the ministry. 

What position does a Book Agent hold ? Is the pub- 
lication of all kinds of books that will pay a profit the 
work of a travelling minister? Is he preaching the 
everlasting truths of Christ's gospel to dying men 
when he issues a history, a dictionary, or a work of 
fiction? Is the mixing in the affairs of the world, 
coming in business competition with men of the church 
and men of the world, studying the changes in the 
market-prices of stuffs, preaching the gospel of Christ ? 
Is he filling the place of a pastor in the church ? Is 
he subject to the trials of the itinerancy? Does he 
have the benefit of its joys and successes ? Does his 
labor in getting a book on the market and making 
money out of it convince any one of sin and the judg- 



196 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ment to come ? Is he doing the great and noble work 
of an effective travelling Methodist minister? Cer- 
tainly not. 

In these suggestive queries it must be borne in mind 
that the objection is not to the men who now hold or 
have held these positions ; they have merely followed 
the usages of the church ; nor to the work, nor to the 
policy, of the church in the past or at this date ; but we 
are looking to the future, to the danger there is to the 
ministry in this temptation to obtain and hold secular 
and semi-religious offices in the church. Our object is 
to show the incongruity of such relations, and the de- 
fect of the organization of the church at this point. 

This argument for limiting the ministry to their 
proper work is more forcible in the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church than in any other religious organization, 
because every effective preacher has his appointed min- 
isterial duties. He is not dependent for his support 
on securing secular employment. When he accepts an 
office which is not strictly within his call, he gives up 
the work to which he has asserted, before God and man, 
that he felt " inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost" to do. 

Another reason may be named. The fact that the 
men selected for the official positions are generally men 
of mark in the church is an argument why they should 
be kept in the pastorate. If they are highly educated; 
if they have natural gifts and acquired powers of ora- 
tory; if they are leaders of men, then the pastorate 
offers the best use for such gifts. It secures for them, 
through its itinerancy, the widest influence. It is making 
the best use of the ability God has bestowed upon them 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 197 

Such men are not so numerous that they can be spared 
for inferior and secular work. On the other side, the 
executive offices of the church require a superior grade 
of men to make them successful, and are not fit places 
for even able ministers in their declining years; they 
all require the energy and hopefulness of early manhood. 
The only safe rule, then, that the church can adopt 
in selecting men for the various offices of the church 
is to limit the use of effective travelling preachers to 
offices that require the use of ministerial functions. 

The same law should apply to the inferior offices in 
the Annual Conferences, and to appointments to chari- 
table and local societies. 

From this exposition of one of the principal temp- 
tations of Methodist preachers it may be profitable to 
establish the proper religious attitude of a minister 
towards church offices. If the ambition of a man is 
to acquire office simply for its emoluments, honor, or 
ease, then such ambition is based on pure selfishness ; 
if he feels an inward consciousness of ability to credit- 
ably perform its duties, the grade of selfishness is 
lessened; but if a man couples with such conscious 
ability a strong desire to better the condition of his 
fellow-men or to increase the usefulness of the church; 
if it is his conviction that he can do more for Christ's 
cause by holding office, then such ambition may be 
honorable. These grades of ambition for the offices 
of government or of society may be pardonable, 
and even honorable, but when the question of suita- 
bility to fill responsible positions in the church is 
brought face to face with human ambition, the really 
17* 



198 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

good man, even though believing himself to be the 
best for the place, will shrink from pressing his own 
suit, and will trust to the sense of his fitness being first 
discovered and suggested by his brethren. The invo- 
cation of divine guidance in a selection may then be a 
solemn act, and not an insult and a sacrilege, as it is 
when the selection has been previously made and agreed 
upon by a caucus, or by friends, and the form of sup- 
plication is used as a cloak. 

While it is acknowledged with thankfulness that 
there are ministers in official position in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church who are comprised in the latter class, 
yet it must be acknowledged with deep sorrow and 
mortification that, judging impartially from all attain- 
able facts, there have been some who were not. 

There is also a constant temptation to several classes 
of ministers to get into all the little places connected 
with the Annual Conferences, to edit local newspapers, 
holiness journals, to buy and sell books, and to repre- 
sent benevolent associations in the cities and towns. 
The applicants for these positions form a second series 
in the line of office-seekers. The first series, already 
described, seek General Conference places ; this second 
series are willing to take a range of places with less pay, 
less honor, and probably more ease. They are often 
men who have been touched with the desire of money- 
making, are speculators in camp-meeting and seaside 
town lots, and use the religion of Christ as an element 
in making money. Many of the applicants for these 
places are men who feel they have been neglected, that 
their talents have not been appreciated, that they are 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 199 

worthy of better than small appointments, and that the 
church has not been willing to take them at their own 
valuation; they are men whose zeal has cooled; who 
have become lazy and unacceptable ; who are unwilling 
to acknowledge that their call to preach has been with- 
drawn, and sever honorably their connection with a 
Conference. They hold on for the chances of getting, 
through their ministerial relation, some other employ- 
ment than that of their Master. There is very often, 
in these petty offices, a temptation to the younger men, 
in their hours of exhaustion and depression, to wish, 
for lighter work. 

But there is a class of men, in connection with the 
Annual Conferences, who may desire such places with- 
out an imputation on their motives or Christian char- 
acter ; men who have served the church faithfully, and 
yet may feel that a time has come when, for various good 
reasons, their active services in the ministry should cease. 

Every effort should be made to save our ministers 
from what seems to be an universal temptation to men 
of that order in all countries and in all Protestant 
Churches, — viz., To get out of the regular work of the 
ministry and to engage in employments that are, in 
their essence, secular. This tendency to the seculari- 
zation of the ministry must be stopped, or the cause 
of Christ will suffer. 

FIFTH: METHODS OF SECURING POWER THROUGH 
ALLIANCES OF THE MINISTRY AS A CLASS. 

The fifth temptation of the ministry is to be found 
in the attempt to secure, by concert of action as a 



200 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

class, certain changes in the organization of the 
church. 

In the following criticisms on this evil it is proper 
to write that, while the motives of men cannot be read 
and should not be impugned, yet it is fair to trace 
effects back to their causes, and leave the labor of har- 
monizing them with wisdom, prudence, and religion 
to those who originate the means that produce the re- 
sults. Combination does not necessarily involve con- 
sultation ; when two or more men work in the same 
line, use the same tools, and the operations of each 
are known to the other, the effect is the same as 
though done after consultation. This effort to secure 
a concert of action to build up a ministerial hierarchy 
has been for some years steadily pursued; men now 
hoary-headed have been sowing the seeds of distrust 
among the preachers, and urging upon them the ne- 
cessity of united action for self-protection. The move- 
ment has proven attractive to some of the younger 
and more ambitious men ; they are dazzled with its 
promised honors, place, and influence ; they have not 
had sufficient experience in life to see its results. 
Whether the efforts in this line had their origin in 
disappointed ambition, the failure of hopes, the ina- 
bility to secure some high office, a failure to compre- 
hend the breadth and mission of Methodism, or what- 
ever may have been the cause, it is impossible to say. 
Yet so it is ; work in this direction has been going on 
for a number of years. 

To exclude the laity from any further representation 
in the councils of the church is the first verse of this 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 201 

New Testament ; to attack the bishops' power and to 
place a limit on the length of their service is the second; 
to build up the Annual Conference as a recognized 
power with certain legislative and administrative rights 
is the third. The last two points of attack are divisible 
into three : 

First : To elect the bishops at each General Confer- 
ence for a four years' term, to lessen their influence in 
the church by disregarding and underrating their ad- 
vice, and to take from them the sole power of appoint- 
ment. 

Second: By changing the law of the church as to 
term of service. 

Third : By increasing the power and influence of 
the Annual Conference. 

If they can succeed in excluding the laity from any 
further representation, in controlling the appointments, 
in lengthening the time of service, and strengthening 
the Annual Conference, they will have retaken the 
citadel of the church just at the time it has been 
thought their control was disappearing. 



BY EXCLUSION OF LAITY - FROM CHURCH COUNCILS. 

If these charges are true the danger is imminent, 
and our members should awake to their importance. 
The careful observers of the passing history of the 
church will note the following, among other facts that 
might be produced, and make their own inferences: 
That a majority of the ministry were opposed to the 
introduction of lay representation into the General Con- 



202 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ferences in 1868 and 1872, that they yielded it under 
pressure, and that a majority of them are to-day op- 
posed to any further introduction of the laity, either 
into the General or Annual Conferences, or to a recon- 
struction of the Quarterly Conference. The defeat of 
the efforts made in the General Conferences of 1880 
and 1884 to increase lay representation in the General 
Conference and to introduce it into the Annual Con- 
ferences tells its own story. The appointment of a 
committee on lay representation by the last General 
Conference, in place of favorable action, was an act 
unworthy of that body. This action of the ministry 
(the lords of Methodism) was on a par with that of 
the House of Lords in England on the franchise bill : 
one wanted a report on lay representation in 1888, the 
other a redistribution bill in advance of the passage of 
the franchise bill. Both wanted to throttle the move- 
ment, as they were based on the same principle, — the 
one to enfranchise the two million members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, the other to enfranchise 
two millions of the laborers of England. This class ten- 
dency will continue to defeat all efforts for change until 
the laity arise and demand their rights as Christian 
men and women to a full and equal share in the work 
of the Church of Jesus Christ. The membership 
should never lose sight of the fact that classes of men 
are persistent in retaining power; they quickly dis- 
cover when its possession is threatened, and readily 
combine for mutual protection and defence. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 203 

BY ATTACK ON THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF 
THE BISHOPS. 

Before considering the attack on the bishops it may 
be well to examine their relation to the organization 
of the church, and the power they have in its admin- 
istration. 



CHURCH. 

The bishops are elected for life, with the right of 
resignation. Their duties are almost exclusively ad- 
ministrative. They preside at all sessions of the Gen- 
eral and Annual Conferences, in which sessions they 
have no vote, and are not admitted to the privileges of 
the floor. From their decision in the General Confer- 
ence there is the right of appeal to the body itself. 
Their decisions in the Annual Conference can only be 
reversed through an appeal to the General Conference. 
They have, therefore, no absolute power of decision ; 
further, it is their duty to appoint the ministers as they 
find them on the rolls of each Conference, the members 
of the Conference determining who are the ministers 
to be appointed. This appointing power is absolute. 
The character of the bishops, the amount of work done 
in the previous four years, and their methods of per- 
forming their work, are examined by a committee at 
each General Conference. In the meetings of the joint 
committees of the Missionary and Church Extension 
Boards, each bishop is entitled to one vote. If it were 
provided in the reconstruction of the boards and socie- 



204 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ties that all committees should consist of an equal num- 
ber of clerical and lay representatives, there would be 
no objection to this right of voting, as it is the only 
instance in which they have any legislative functions ; 
their knowledge of the wants of the church makes 
them valuable advisers on the principal committees of 
the benevolent boards. 

There are two objections made to the power of the 
bishops : 

First : Their absolute power of appointment. 

Second : The power of their personal influence in 
the church. 

Every intelligent man who has had any experience 
in business will concede the necessity of a directing 
head in the performance of important executive duties, 
and every observant man will acknowledge, as one 
of the defects of other church organizations, the ab- 
sence of power to utilize to the best advantage their 
ministerial and other forces. In the practical working 
of their system of filling pulpits, the interest of but 
one church is consulted ; the stronger churches select 
the ablest ministers, and to the weak churches are left 
the least desirable preachers, or they are left unsup- 
plied. Such a system is narrow, and is not adapted 
to a vigorous and aggressive system. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is able, through 
the itinerancy, to supply every station, circuit, and mis- 
sion work with a preacher, and all its preachers with 
employment in the work to which they have been 
called. To do this effectively, and with the least fric- 
tion, the itinerancy and the sole power of appointment 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 205 

by a bishop are absolutely necessary. The Wesleyan 
method is defective in England, and would be imprac- 
ticable in this country. As charges are made against 
the bishops in their use of this power, it is fair to ask, 
Wherein can a bishop unfairly use or abuse this trust ? 
The answer will be, in unequally distributing the men 
to the work ; in failing to recognize the claims of some 
and giving to others better appointments than they de- 
serve ; in having favorites, and in being unduly influ- 
enced by the advising elders. That the administration 
of the bishops may not be faultless is part of their 
humanity, and herein they are on the same footing 
with the objectors ; but the experience of the church 
proves that, granting all possible and probable errors 
of judgment, the bishops, in the whole history of the 
church, have been singularly fortunate in the per- 
formance of their very delicate duties. This result 
is an evidence not so much of their human wisdom 
as of divine guidance. As an offset against error of 
judgment, or even intentional oppression, is the fact 
that such oppression can continue but one year; that 
is, until the meeting of the next Annual Confer- 
ence, when, under the presidency of another bishop, 
wrongs may be redressed. Men rarely act oppres- 
sively or misuse power without an equivalent object in 
view. What object or interest can a bishop have in 
doing injustice in his appointments to either the min- 
isters or the laity ? On the one side, his natural sym- 
pathies are with his brethren of the ministry. If he 
has been a pastor, — and none other should be elected to 
the office of bishop, — he knows their peculiar trials and 

18 



206 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

difficulties. Experience and observation teach him 
why and wherein certain characteristics of mind, man- 
ner, habits, ability, and acquirement in a preacher are 
best suited to the peculiar wants of a certain station or 
circuit. His chief business is to study these char- 
acteristics, and the wants of each station and circuit, 
and it is marvellous how rapidly a few years' ser- 
vice in the superintendency educates a bishop in this 
direction. In fine, the experience of Episcopal Metho- 
dism in this country has approved the itinerancy, and 
the necessity of the degree of power granted to the 
bishops. 

The other objection is to the personal influence of 
the bishops in the church. This objection is so puerile 
as to be scarcely worthy of an answer. However, it 
may be said of the bishops, that if they had no influ- 
ence upon the church they would be unworthy of their 
places ; that their influence has been based on their 
wisdom and godly character; that it is the result of 
careful observation of their speech and conduct by the 
whole church, an ordeal few men can sustain ; that 
no bishop has ever brought disgrace on himself, his 
fellows, or the church; and that the responsibilities 
they assume in their office have invariably made them 
better men. Where have been, and where are the men 
in the history of the church who were better entitled 
to exert all their personal influence than an Asbury, a 
McKendree, a George, an Andrew, a Janes, a Pierce, 
an Ames, a Simpson, or any of their fellow-bishops? 

Some of the ministers will reply to this statement of 
the influence of the bishops by urging that there is 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 207 

another side that should be examined. They will assert 
that there has been, and that there is a constant ten- 
dency on the part of the bishops to secure and assume 
power through the influence of their position, as well 
as of their personality. Such a tendency is natural to 
men. It may be a praiseworthy ambition unduly ex- 
tended. It is right and proper that such limitations 
should be placed upon their power as will secure the 
church from its abuse. These guards have been care- 
fully established, as has been shown. The bishops can 
gain no more power unless with consent of the General 
Conference. To do this two things are required : 

First : There must be unanimity of opinion among 
them as to the nature and extent of the desired increase 
of power; and, 

Second : They must have the aid of the ministers to 
make the changes in the laws that are required to secure 
such power. 

As to the first condition : The ministers should in- 
terrogate their candidates before election upon their 
ambitions, and obtain promises in advance as to their 
action. If there are any members of the present board, 
or if the General Conference should elect any hereafter, 
who sympathize with the fears of the brethren as to 
the tendency of the bishops to abuse or misuse their 
influence, they have an excellent opportunity to save 
the church from the threatened danger by simply re- 
fusing to become parties to such ambitious attempts. 
A minority of one may thus be as effective as a majority 
of the board. No increase of power can be secured 
without the assent of the whole board. 



208 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

As to the second condition : The ministers can pre- 
vent such a dire catastrophe by embracing every oppor- 
tunity of snubbing the bishops in the Conferences. 
They can show their independence, and exhibit their 
manliness of character and the sweetness of their tem- 
pers, by attacking them at all points, thereby reducing 
their influence, and so lessen any danger to the church. 
They can also instruct their delegates to vote against 
any such increase of power, whereby all danger will 
be at an end. But if ministers should become de- 
moralized with the expectation of their own individual 
success, and be ready to grant a power they hope in 
time to exercise, where, then, is the church to look 
for succor? There are two safeguards that may be 
applied : 

First : Greater care in the selection of the men for 
the office of bishop ; and, 

Secondly : By such an organization of the councils 
of the church as will introduce an element (laical) that 
will not be subject to the temptation or ambition to 
rule, and by such a distribution of power and responsi- 
bility as will enable this lay element to prevent any 
other order from gaining undue power or influence in 
the church. An application of these suggestions will 
prevent the bishops from misusing the influence that 
goes with their personal character and official position, 
and will protect the ministers from yielding to the 
temptation to assert for their order a power that does 
not belong to them. It will also protect them from 
the necessity of so continually reminding the bishops 
that they are men, and no better than their brethren 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 209 

of the same order, the elders; and, further, it will place 
on the laity the great charge to see that no harm comes 
to the church. 

During the last General Conference there was an 
evident disposition among the ministry to express in 
some way their feeling of hostility to the bishops. 
There were two well-designed and judiciously-handled 
attacks upon them in that Conference. The first ap- 
pears in taking advantage of a resolution expressive 
of the opinion of the Conference, that the Episcopacy 
is an office, not an order. The resolution was carried, 
and while many understood the object and what the 
effect would be, yet a majority feared to vote against it 
lest such vote should be misconstrued. The combina- 
tion thereby gained one point, in making the false 
impression that such a resolution was required to 
keep the bishops from presuming that they were in 
any way superior in orders to the elders. It is a fair 
inference that the object of the resolution was to 
affect unfavorably the position of the bishops before 
the ministers and the members of the church, by 
creating an impression that such a grave deliver- 
ance was required to correct an existing opinion 
held by one or more of that body. Such a resolution 
might influence ministers, but would fail to affect the 
laity ; for it is their pleasure to respect and reverence 
the bishops and to give them their fullest confidence. 
If this was not the intention, what was it? Was it a 
mere recitation of a well-established principle of our 
church government? If so, the resolution was super- 
fluous. If any one of the bishops so thought, or if any 
o 18* 



210 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

of the members whom it was arranged to elect as bishops 
so believed, the passage of the resolution could have no 
influence on them. If such a deliverance had been 
placed in the ritual, so that the new men might be 
questioned as to their belief on this exceedingly im- 
portant point of church government, then it would 
have gone for what it was worth ; but we repeat that 
whatever may have been intended, the resolution had 
in it all the appearance of an understood attack on 
the bishops, — not personally, but upon the relation of 
a bishop to the church. 

So much has been written about orders in the min- 
istry, that a little attention to this subject may show 
wherein it may have an interest for some of the min- 
isters. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church provides for the 
two orders of deacon and elder in its ministry ; these 
orders are patterned after what is believed to have 
been the relation held by men like Stephen, James, 
John, and others. It was a practical arrangement of 
work made to provide for the interests and growth 
of the young church. The one set of men are called 
deacons, the other elders. The church as a precau- 
tionary measure has provided certain tests before a 
man can become a deacon, and other tests of knowl- 
edge, character, acceptability, and piety, before he is 
admitted into the ministry as an elder. These precau- 
tionary requisitions are designed to guard against the 
introduction of improper or unprepared men into the 
ministry. They are altogether of human origin. The 
limited authority given to the exhorters, to the deacons, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 211 

and the full authority given to the elders to perform, 
certain duties, have the same origin. The authority to 
the elders to marry, to baptize, to administer the sacra- 
ments, to ordain other men to the ministry, is based 
on the fitness of things. Now, then, wherein does 
an order differ from an office which requires certain 
preparation, imposes certain duties, and grants certain 
powers ? If there is any difference, it must arise from 
some peculiar power given to those holding an order, 
and which is denied to those who hold an office. It 
is at this point where the trouble comes in which has 
distracted the Church of Jesus Christ for more than 
fifteen hundred years. Without the shadow of reason, 
yet the word order has been used as a basis on which 
to erect all the splendid churches of the past, and 
many of the strong churches of to-day, this basis being 
that the word order includes the claim that special 
spiritual gifts accompany different orders. Those in 
the highest order receive the particular and peculiar 
power to perform all religious rites, such as marry- 
ing, baptizing, administration of the sacraments, con- 
trol of the church, etc. This is of course equivalent 
to holding that some special divine gift is bestowed 
on the elders that is not given to the deacons or to 
the laity. This comparison of these claims as to the 
orders with the simple manner and object of their 
creation, is enough to expose their absurdity. There is 
something very pleasing and attractive to weak human- 
ity in the word order : it indicates rank not place, 
it makes the elders little popes, whom Monseigneur 
Capel would style as mere " imitators," as he does the 



212 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

Ritualists in the English Church. Yet it is just at 
this point that so-called high-church opinions have a 
stronger hold on the ministry of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church than the members suppose, and these 
opinions, worthy of Rome and the English State 
Church, are largely at the root of the opposition of 
the ministers to lay representation. 

The effort to humble the bishops by passing the 
resolution that they were not members of a special 
order, but were office-holders in the same order as their 
brethren, was evidently intended not to elicit a vote 
that the bishops were not superior in the Church of 
Christ to the deacons or to the laity, but that they were 
not the superiors in the church of the elders, of the 
ministerial members of the General Conference. This 
was the point which was supposed to touch their amour 
propre. The term "order" is generally used to ex- 
press classes of men who have some special work, 
employment, or bond of association, or some distin- 
guishing characteristic, as the Masonic Order, the 
Odd-Fellows, Order of Red Men, the Dominican, 
Jesuit, and other orders of the Roman Church. The 
same words are applied to deacons and elders, and in 
the general use of the term would include the bishops 
as an order, for they form a class. 

The word " order" is, then, a general term applied 
to classes, while " office" is specific, as applied to the 
few. There can be no harm in saying either that the 
bishops are in a certain order, or that they hold office 
in an order. Both names may be applied to them and 
be consistent with the distinction used, unless there are 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 213 

some certain powers incident and affixed to certain 
orders, and these powers are communicated by super- 
natural agency, or are divinely conveyed in the pro- 
cess of ordination or consecration. 

The advocates of such a resolution should not forget 
that the laity are not prepared to consent to their as- 
sumptions of special spiritual power or authority over 
them and the deacons of the church, though the Chris- 
tian Advocate, as already quoted, says it is theirs " to 
command," — a most offensive word. These brethren 
should remember, that the laity agree with the Rev. 
Dr. Stevens, that all the forms used in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church are for "decency's sake/' aud for 
the better and more seemly administration of the work 
of the church ; it is the same reason that underlies all 
the forms used in civil governments. The laity be- 
lieve in the inherent right of every Christian to do 
and perform any and every rite in the church, including 
the ordination or formal setting apart of men to any 
work. This last sentence is introduced with the object 
of correcting another error of our assuming elders, 
which is the making of a distinction between ordi- 
nation and consecration. Deacons and elders are or- 
dained to an order, — that is, simply set apart to. do a 
certain work. This is, perhaps, as good a word as 
" assigned," as a form of words is part of the process. 
Business men "assign" men to do a certain work; 
this would convey the object of the process more 
clearly : but bishops go through a form of consecration 
by laying on of hands of elders. The use of this word 
to the ordinary man involves the idea that the candi- 



214 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

date passes through a process of being made holy, either 
by some special transmission of grace from the Divine 
being through the hands of the elders, or by receiving 
such grace direct from such elders, either of which 
propositions is repugnant to the intelligence of the laity 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

It may be well at this place to notice the change of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in its interpretation 
of what is done, conveyed, or imparted in the ordi- 
nance of consecration. The change was made by the 
General Conference of 1864. 

Up to that time high-church ideas of prelatical 
transmission and reception of the Holy Spirit through 
the person (the hands) of those administering the or- 
dinance of consecration prevailed. The fathers had 
copied the services of the English Church, and had 
taught the doctrine of the transmission of the Holy 
Ghost through the administrators, being the essence of 
the dogma of apostolic succession. The radical change 
thus taught will be readily seen by the following ex- 
tracts from the Ritual. 

Up to 1864 the form of words used was (the bishop 
and elders laying their hands upon the elected person) : 
" Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a 
bishop in the Church of God, now committed unto 
thee by the imposition of our hands, in the name of 
the Father, Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And 
remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is 
given thee by the imposition of our hands/' 

The General Conference of 1864 altered the wording 
to read, " The Lord pour upon thee the Holy Ghost 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 215 

for the work and office of a bishop in the Church of 
God, now committed unto thee by the authority of the 
church, through the imposition of our hands," etc., 
"and remember that thou stir up the grace of God 
that is within thee." 

The form of ordination of elders was altered in 1792, 
from, " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office," etc., to, 
" The Lord pour upon thee the Holy Ghost for the 
office and work of an elder," etc. 

This important change in the doctrine of the church 
has not had time to affect the views of the ministers 
educated to the former teachings. 

The second attack on the Episcopacy was in the use 
made of the answer of the bishops to the request of the 
General Conference for their opinion upon the wisdom 
of electing a bishop for India. Independently of the 
question how far the bishops were correct in their 
opinion given to the General Conference, it was evi- 
dently a good time to lower the confidence with which 
their opinions, when asked for, had been received by 
preceding General Conferences. 

The church at large may be congratulated on the fail- 
ure of the attempt to secure a majority vote of the laity 
and the ministry against the bishops. The lay dele- 
gates wisely decided that the Board of Bishops (in- 
cluding the four who had been on the ground, aod had 
carefully studied the wants of the work and its pecu- 
liarities) understood the inside and outside influences 
and movements connected with the question, the diffi- 
culties that would come to the Missionary Society if the 
proposition prevailed, and the dangers connected with 



216 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

it, to the church at home and in India. They believed 
that the Board of Bishops comprehended the ques- 
tion more thoroughly in all its bearings, and had better 
grounds on which to base an opinion, than the Mission- 
ary Committee or the members of the General Confer- 
ence. And then again they were unwilling to aid the 
eifort to humiliate the bishops in this direct attack on 
them, for, in the judgment of these iconoclasts, to 
weaken or destroy the confidence of the church in the 
bishops, individually and collectively, was evidently 
an important and necessary step in their aspirations. 
They feel that the bishops are in their way in their 
effort to gain the control of the church. Reference is 
only made to the devisers of the movement, not to all 
those who voted in favor of the proposition. 

Again, an opportunity of belittling the bishops was 
eagerly seized on by some of the delegates, in their ex- 
ceedingly discourteous, and unwise, and unjust refusal 
to extend to Bishop Wiley, who bad been requested by 
the Conference to act as chairman of a special com- 
mittee, the usual privilege given to the chairmen of 
committees to close, a debate. 

A third plan of this ministerial party is to limit the 
term of the bishops to four years, — from one General 
Conference to another. If this could be done, they 
see very clearly that the office or order of bishops 
would soon lose its influence and the respect and confi- 
dence of the church. Such a change would open the 
flood-gates of corruption upon the Conferences ; the 
occupants of the office would in most cases be un- 
worthy of the place, because good men would not submit 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 217 

to the conditions that would then elect them. These 
demoralizing influences would affect the ministers ; the 
power of partisanship and the control of the bishops 
would drive upright men out of the ministry of the 
church ; the management of the moneyed interests of 
the church boards and societies would suffer in the 
confidence of the people. The system of the itin- 
erancy could not be carried on with bishops who 
would not be able in their four years of service to 
cover the whole territory of the church. Any defect at 
this point would seriously injure, and in the end destroy, 
the general polity of Methodism. The laity could not 
accept bishops so elected as proper arbitrators between 
them and the ministry. The great influence which is 
now exerted by the bishops in unifying the church in 
keeping up a general and common interest in all its 
parts would be destroyed. 

The ultimate result of such a plan would be to di- 
vide the church into dioceses, with an elected president 
for each one, — an emasculated Methodism. 

BY USE OF THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 

A third direction in which the partisan ministers 
work to secure their object is by the passage of resolu- 
tions in the Annual Conferences instructing the bishops 
as to their administration, and in attempting by reso- 
lutions to forestall the opinion of the body of the 
church. It is an effort in which they hope that by 
some sort of coup de main they may get the advantage 
of a grave expression of the judgment of the fathers 
and brethren of a Conference in advance of action by 
k 19 



218 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the General Conference, or the formation of an opinion 
by the members. While these brethren ought to know 
that the opinions of the ministry in any church have 
less weight with their people, or with the public, than 
in former years, the causes of which it is not necessary 
to discuss, yet they also know that church opinion 
may be influenced by the action of an Annual Confer- 
ence. 

It is at this initial point that laymen should be 
present as members of Annual Conferences, and have 
a part in the formation of such utterances, if they are 
to be made. This argument deserves consideration ; it 
will be a safeguard in the event of a contest between 
the ministers as against the bishops and the laity, which 
is inevitable unless stopped by the introduction of wise 
counsellors into our church bodies. Some of the An- 
nual Conferences gravely assume the right to instruct 
the bishops as to their appointment of presiding elders, 
of preachers to stations, as to transfers, etc., and en- 
deavor thus to influence the presiding officer in the 
performance of his duties. They hope, by this con- 
stant system of aggression, to gain the recognition of a 
right not only to pass such resolutions, but to give 
to them the force of instructions. They understand 
how assumption of power, unresisted, gradually comes 
to be acknowledged as a right. To meet such assertion 
of power it is very important for the safety of the 
church that the laity should be present in the Annual 
Conferences. The disgraceful scenes in the Philadel- 
phia Annual Conference of 1884, when the bishops 
and laity were so bitterly attacked, will not soon be 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 219 

forgotten by the laymen who were present. If there was 
needed any additional argument in favor of the full 
introduction of lay representation in the Annual Con- 
ferences, it was such a scene. Any system of civil or 
church government which permits the members of a 
body to make such charges and aspersions against their 
equals without providing for a means of meeting them 
is grossly defective. 

TRANSFERS. 

Many of the ministers are led into a false position, 
indeed they fall into a trap shrewdly prepared by the 
leaders of the prelatical party in the church, by the 
arguments they use as to the respective rights of the 
Conferences and bishops in the matter of transfers. 
The simplest statement of their argument being, that 
the appointment to charges in a Conference primarily 
belongs to the members of such Conference, and there- 
fore, unless there are not enough men to meet the de- 
mand, no transfer should be made, and if made, such 
transfers should be appointed to the less desirable sta- 
tions or circuits. Such a plain statement of the case 
will not be acceptable to some ministers, as it reveals 
ignorance of the law of the church and intense selfish- 
ness, with a large degree of personal vanity, because 
such transfers are usually appointed to the more de- 
sirable charges. 

The^rs^ assumption is: That membership in a Con- 
ference carries with it some special power or rights 
that are inherent in the Conference. The second : That 
one of these rights is a preference in the appointments 



220 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

for such Conference. The third: That there are in 
each Conference ministers fully able to take charge of 
and sustain any pulpit in such Conference. 

The thorough baselessness of the first and second 
assumptions has been, hereinbefore, so fully exposed 
that it is not necessary now to more than allude to 
some of the arguments then made, viz. : First : That 
every minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church is a 
member of the church at large, and should receive his 
appointment solely in view of the good and the require- 
ments of the general work. Second : The subdivision 
of the general work into Annual Conferences and pre- 
siding elders' districts is purely one of convenience in 
administration, without detriment to or affecting the 
true relation of a minister to the church at large. To 
argue otherwise is to deny to every minister in the 
church his right to the appointment in the gift of the 
bishops wherein he can be of the most service to the 
cause of Christ. Such a denial would be destructive 
of the essence of the itinerancy, and of the most im- 
portant work of a bishop, which is to find the preacher, 
anywhere in the country, who may be the best adapted 
to the wants of any special mission, church, or district 
wherever it may be located. These statements are 
enough for the law of the case ; neither the ministers 
nor the laymen should be willing to give up this essen- 
tial feature of the itinerancy. It is almost the Magna 
Charta of their rights in the church. 

The use of the word transfer is, strictly speaking, a 
misnomer, at least in its generally accepted sense; the 
man is not transferred and then appointed: but first 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 221 

appointed and then transferred. The true theory- 
should not be forgotten, that an appointment is first 
made by the bishop : and then, for the convenience of 
administration, such appointee is enrolled in the list 
of a certain Annual Conference, which embraces the 
church, station, or district to which he is appointed. 
He is not transferred to a Conference,* but appointed to 
work in the bounds of a Conference; and further, that 
an Annual Conference is in the nature of a commission 
created by the General Conference for certain purposes, 
and at its annual meeting the ministers who are con- 
nected with the commission receive their appointments 
for the year following. 

The causes of the existence of the feeling against 
transfers in many Conferences are worth analyzing. Of- 
fensive odors generally indicate decay. Complaints by 
the ministers of a want of appreciation by the people 
show very clearly the good sense of the people in dis- 
cerning the lazy, the indolent, the old sermons, and the 
lifeless manner. Among the objectors to transfers may 
be found those for whom the bishops have great trouble 
in finding places by reason of lack of confidence of 
their brethren in them, of want of ability or useful- 
ness, and some for reasons not necessary to mention. 
Then, too, there is a class of the ministers already 
alluded to who are full of vanity and self-esteem : they 
think if the system of transfers was stopped there would 

* The recently adopted plan of the bishops, in first making the 
transfer and leaving the appointment to the bishop presiding, 
cannot nullify the principle in the polity of the church. As 
among themselves, the reasons for such a change are obvious. 

19* 



222 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

be less sending of first-class men to third-class appoint- 
ments; and they would be personally benefited. The 
plain facts in the case are ignored : no church would 
ask for a transfer if it could be as acceptably served at 
home; the churches may err, but it is their best judg- 
ment, and if the bishop, presiding elder, and the min- 
ister in question agree with them that the transfer may 
be the best thing to be done, that should be the end of 
it. The wisest precautions have been taken ; the church 
can provide no more. It is certainly a safer plan than 
to take the judgment of an aspiring minister as to his 
qualifications for an appointment. There are among 
us many men of God who are thankful that they are 
deemed worthy of being sent to any place to preach 
Christ and him crucified, and to tell others what he 
has done for them ; and again there are others who do 
not sympathize with such sentiments; they desire to 
select the dying men to whom they may j)reach their 
gospel. There are several influences that create a feel- 
ing of opposition to transfers among good men. Some 
of these have their origin in the facts, That by reason 
of the small difference in the majority of the ministry 
as to pulpit ability, usefulness, and acceptability, the 
bishops have used the power of transfer to a very 
limited extent ; that a long residence in a Conference 
begets personal and family attachments; that with in- 
creasing age comes hesitation and unwillingness to risk 
change of people, of habits, and of country. Ministers 
who have been raised within the boundaries of a Con- 
ference that has for years retained its name, like the 
Philadelphia or the Baltimore Conferences ; who have 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 223 

entered the ministry in connection therewith, have 
married and have their family interests within its 
boundaries, do not feel that they can, without much 
discomfort and inconvenience to themselves and fam- 
ilies, and perhaps pecuniary loss, be transferred to 
another Conference. 

They therefore hold on, take appointment after ap- 
pointment, each within hearing distance of the other, 
and the result is that they find even in middle life, and 
though they may be industrious, studious, hard-work- 
ing, faithful, and good men, that their acceptability is 
waning. They see others transferred to pulpits they 
hoped to fill, and the future begins to appear dark ; how 
readily are such men tempted to look at the wrong cause 
and the wrong remedy ! The cause is in themselves. It 
is in the simple fact that any minister will lose his ac- 
ceptability and usefulness (especially a Methodist min- 
ister) whose voice, manner, and current of thought be- 
come familiar to a people. The remedy is the freer use 
of the power of transfer, with all its accompanying dis- 
abilities and drawbacks. Yet these embarrassments 
would in the end cause less pain and less self-denial to 
the minister and his family, through the gain of an ex- 
tended time of usefulness and the ability to earn a com- 
fortable support. 

Another reason that influences many of the ministry 
is due to their financial interests in the several aid so- 
cieties with which they may have been connected for a 
long time, which would be lost or impaired by a transfer. 

Three other thoughts are worthy of consideration : 

First: The good influence of transferred men on the 



224 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ministry and people to whom they are sent. It is like 
the introduction of new blood to an old family ; it 
gives a sparkle to the life that was lost ; it is apt to 
push aside grooved thoughts and ways ; it prevents the 
effeteness that accompanies uninterrupted manners and 
customs, and, more than that, it insures a unity in the 
church. It develops men ; a new people will waken a 
slow man and stir up a sluggish one. 

Second : In this wide country our people are seldom 
brought into contact on church interests, and the ten- 
dency will be to create different phases of Methodism 
in different parts of the country. A more general 
exchange of ministers will do much towards making 
the church homogeneous, and thereby help to counter- 
act the disintegrating tendencies of separated church 
life. These influences are noticeable in Eastern Meth- 
odism, the Methodism of the Middle States, of the 
South, and of the West. 

Third : There is something to be learned from the 
experience of other churches. In no other church is 
there anything of the narrowness that would prevent 
any minister in any part of the country from accepting 
a pastorate in any other part of the country. What 
would be thought of a Presbytery, a Council, a Dio- 
cesan Convention refusing to accept a minister from 
another like body by reason of its location? They 
fully recognize the fact that ministers soon lose their 
influence over a people, and so they rarely change from 
one church to another in the same city or district, but 
seek for a pastorate among a new people in a different 
part of the country. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 225 

It is to be hoped, for the honor of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, that the ministers will overrule all 
attempts to destroy the rights of their brethren, if they 
do not value their own rights ; all attempts to ignore a 
vital principle of the itinerancy ; or to interfere with 
the advantage the system of transfers secures to the 
ministers and their families, and the influence it has 
on the unity of the church. 

THE PRESIDING ELDERS. 

Eeference has been made to the effort, in the interest 
of the class-feeling among the ministry, to change the 
relation, in the organization of the church, of the pre- 
siding elders to the bishops. It may not therefore be 
amiss to refresh the minds of some of the members by 
a glance at the present relation of the elders to the 
bishops and to the church, and their peculiar duties. 

They are appointed by a bishop presiding at an 
Annual Conference to take charge of the interests of 
the church in a particular district of country. It is 
their duty to report to and consult with the bishop in 
charge as to such interests, and to attend the bishop 
when in their districts. At the Annual Conferences 
they more formally report not only upon the general 
interests, but upon the special interests of each charge 
and the work of each minister in their districts. They 
may be appointed to a district for four successive years, 
but an interval of six years must elapse before they 
can be reappointed to the same district. 

Their duties to the church are varied, including the 
holding of a Quarterly Conference at each station or 



226 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

circuit every three months, at which time the detailed 
interests of such station or circuit are canvassed ; they 
have control of the elders, deacons, travelling and local 
preachers and exhorters in their districts; they are 
charged with overseeing " the spiritual and temporal" 
business of the church, with looking after the general 
collections for the church boards; they may change, 
receive, and suspend preachers during the interval be- 
tween the sessions of a Conference and in the absence 
of a bishop; they decide all questions of law in a 
Quarterly Conference. It is their duty to look after 
the young men who contemplate entering the ministry, 
and by their fatherly advice guide them in the way 
of preparation. 

This sketch of their duties will reveal, to many who 
may not have carefully read the Discipline, that the 
presiding elders occupy a very important place in car- 
rying out the polity of the church; they are sub- 
bishops or superintendents of their districts, many of 
which are quite as large and important as some of the 
dioceses in the Episcopal Church. The value of their 
work in the older Conferences may not be so apparent. 
It is necessary that a useful machine should first be 
well built; secondly, be carefully watched; and, thirdly, 
have a competent machinist at hand in case of need. 
So with the organization and administration of the 
elders' districts. The organization is unexceptionable: 
a competent elder will carefully watch its working, 
and be ready with a remedy in case of need. The 
machinery of the church needs no regulation while 
working smoothly; it does require careful watching, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 227 

it does at times require the presence and power of an 
elder, to preserve it from harm. The perfection of an 
organization is seen when it seems to work by its own 
inherent power. The duties of the eldership require 
men of trained minds, good judgment, prudence, pulpit 
ability, and administrative talent. In the earlier days 
such men were carefully selected ; they became leaders, 
and exercised great influence within the church and on 
the people of the districts which they travelled ; they 
were a recognized power in Methodism and in the 
country. 

In the olden time, and even yet in some places, the 
approach of the Quarterly Conference and the coming 
of the elder were and are looked forward to as times 
of a gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of the 
gathering in of the members of a circuit for religious 
worship, of the hospitable provision for all comers, 
of the initiated revival, and the strengthening of the 
feeble churches. While the office of a presiding elder 
has been acknowledged as a necessity in the past for 
the successful working of the organization of the 
church, it is evident that the future demands of the 
church will require its continuance, and that it shall 
be filled by the highest style of men in the ministry. 
Its importance will increase in proportion to the 
growth of the church, the development of its inter- 
ests, and the inability of the bishops to maintain that 
knowledge of the ministers and their work which 
they did in past years. The work of a bishop is 
changing in this respect; he must now depend very 
largely on the suggestions and information given by 



228 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the elders, on their wisdom, prudence, tact, and knowl- 
edge of the men and the people. 

The eldership excited at an early day great hostility, 
and various efforts were made to limit the powers and 
duties of the office. At first this was due to the con- 
tinued appointment of the same men as elders, and 
much of the opposition was engendered because it 
was felt by some of the preachers that their claims 
were overlooked ; that there was favoritism exercised. 
Now the claim is, not that the office shall be dispensed 
with, for its importance to the work of the church is 
too evident, but that the power of appointment by the 
bishop shall be limited to a selection from some fixed 
number of preachers nominated by the members of an 
Annual Conference, or that the elders shall be elected 
by the Conferences, or that they — the Conferences — 
shall have an authoritative voice in the appoint- 
ments, or in some way break the exclusive power of ap- 
pointment by the bishops, and thus enable the minis- 
ters to partition the appointments among themselves. 
Some of these objections have been elsewhere discussed ; 
they are noted at this point to open the way for a con- 
sideration of the policy of granting the right to the 
Annual Conferences to interfere with or to change the 
present relation of the bishops to the elders, to the 
ministry, and to the laity, and the results should such 
change take place. 

The granting of such power to an Annual Confer- 
ence, or the making of any changes in the organization 
of the church which would interfere with the appointing 
by the bishop, either of elders or preachers, would be 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 229 

in the line not of administration only, but of legisla- 
tion. This power has been shown in the discussion 
of the Annual Conference to be impracticable and en- 
tirely inconsistent with proper government. The An- 
nual Conferences were instituted for special purposes, 
and legislative powers are inconsistent with the object 
of their creation. Again, the granting of such power 
would be in violation of the relation that exists, by 
virtue of the organization of the church, between the 
ministry, the laity, and the bishops ; it would be intro- 
ducing an element which would destroy the balance 
now existing. For the good of the church the ministry 
agree to go wherever sent by the bishops, and the laity 
agree to receive whomsoever the bishops may send. 
Any other power than that of a bishop, who is inde- 
pendent of both parties and a just arbitrator, would be 
properly resisted. The proposed interference with this 
power of the bishops would destroy the itinerancy. 

From the fact of the presence of the bishop, as in 
some sense an arbitrator, arises the right of both par- 
ties to meet him and give him the benefit of their views 
as to the appointment to be made to any particular sta- 
tion. This is especially the right of the laity, because of 
the elders acting as advisers of the bishop. If the laity 
were not so recognized they would be helpless against 
either a body of elders or even one elder, who for any 
reason unwisely or unjustly opposed their wishes as to 
who should be their minister. The proposition to intro- 
duce laymen into the councils of the bishops as an offset 
to the influence of the elders would increase the difficul- 
ties that now exist; the laymen are not prepared or 

20 



230 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

fitted to undertake such a duty. Again, the essence of 
good administration is found in securing a proper re- 
sponsibility. If the elders are forced on the bishops 
by nomination or by election, there will be a destruc- 
tion of responsibility. The bishops are responsible to 
the General Conference for their administration, they 
could not be held responsible for the actions of men they 
did not choose ; the elders are not now and could not 
be made answerable to the General Conference for their 
advice to the bishops. The wisdom of the present 
policy of allowing the bishops to choose their advisers 
is further shown by the fact that it is the policy adopted 
in all governments. All constitutional governments 
give either their presidents or the prime minister this 
power ; it is a recognized necessity to secure good ad- 
ministration and proper responsibility. The delicate 
and responsible duties to be performed by the bishops 
in determining the appointments render their power 
of appointing the elders the more proper and necessary. 
Indeed, all restrictions as to reappointments of elders 
should be erased from the Discipline. They found 
their way into it from petty jealousy, envy, unworthy 
ambition, and with but little cause. The bishop should 
have unrestrained access to the best advice from the 
most competent elders, in addition to the information 
to be gained from the laity, from intercourse with the 
people, from observation, and from his colleagues. 

A most potent argument against changing any part 
of the present law respecting the presiding elders, their 
power and duties, and their relation to the ministry, 
will be found in the trouble that would come with 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 231 

it to the ministry. Introduce the right to nominate, 
to elect, or to give the elders the power of a veto upon 
the bishops, and the flood-gates of bargain and sale, 
of corrupt engagements, of contracts, deals, and under- 
standings, would be let in upon the Conference, to the 
disgust of all good men and the demoralization of the 
ministry. It would at once introduce discord between 
the ministry and the laity, for the laity could not, with 
any self-respect, submit their interests in the church to 
a council so composed. 

Let, then, the presiding eldership be kept as it is, 
but let more care be taken by the bishops in selecting 
the elders. The interests of the church require the 
choice of a higher class of men than is the case in 
many of the Annual Conferences. 

TERM OF SERVICE. 

The class power of the ministry is proposed to be 
strengthened by a prolongation of the term of service. 
The well-known opposition to it by the laity, as ex- 
pressed in the lay vote in the last General Conference, 
furnished an additional argument to some of the min- 
istry why an increase in the lay representation should be 
prevented. An element of safety at this point is found 
in the facts that the advocates of a longer term are not 
found among the more acceptable and intelligent of the 
ministers, and that they are not largely represented in 
a General Conference. 

With a due regard to the drawbacks and sacrifices 
of the itinerancy, yet what other system will insure a 
minister as prolonged and useful a life, as long a term 



232 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

of service, or a better support ? There are involved in 
it personal considerations, and it is not suited to every 
man who may feel it his duty to preach. With this class 
there is no place for argument. If there are men in 
the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church who 
are not in sympathy with the principles of its polity, 
and feel that they can be more useful to the cause of 
Christ in working under some other organization, it is far 
better for them, and it will be to the advantage of the 
church, that they withdraw their membership. There 
is no disgrace connected with such withdrawal. All 
reasonable men will recognize the fact that no sys- 
tem of church government is exactly adapted to all. 
Each has its peculiarities, and it is largely as men can 
harmonize their thoughts, feelings, and habits with 
such peculiarities that they should make church con- 
nections and associations. The prayers and good will 
of the church should go with all such brethren. There 
is more of Christian manhood in thus withdrawing, 
when the minister finds himself unsuited to the itiner- 
ancy, than there is in remaining in the church as a 
continual grumbler, and striving to change its laws to 
suit his own preferences. There are drawbacks con- 
nected with, and personal sacrifices to be made in, the 
Methodist ministry; there is no situation in life of 
which the same may not be written, and there are no 
more of such hindrances to comfort and the enjoyment 
of personal desires in the Methodist ministry than in 
any other calling. Every station and condition in life 
has drawbacks peculiar to itself. 

Not infrequently a minister is heard complaining of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 233 

his support, and declaring how much more money he 
could have made if he had engaged in worldly pur- 
suits. This is finding fault with his Master for calling 
him to preach, and not to make money. Such com- 
plaints and such an argument indicate either a mistake 
on the part of the man in supposing he was called to 
preach, or that his love has grown cold and that his in- 
terest in his Master's cause is waning. Sad, indeed, is 
it for any one who has been really called to follow, not 
only in the footsteps of the Apostles, but in those of 
Christ, to fall so low. Such men should at once with- 
draw from the ministry. 

There is another suggestion to be made to such breth- 
ren, — that those who thus complain seem to have a 
wrong view of the theory of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church as to the object of the pay they receive from 
the members. Such complainants accept the pay as 
hire for their services, which, if sold in the labor mar- 
ket, they say, would bring them much larger returns. 
These brethren should understand that the Methodist 
Episcopal Church is as much opposed to a " hireling 
ministry" as the " Friends." The church would not 
dare to estimate the value of the services of an efficient 
minister. The reward for such services is to be meas- 
ured and accounted for hereafter by the great Head of 
the church. While here, the church only promises 
the best support that can be obtained while the minis- 
ters are engaged in persuading men to be saved, in 
showing them that their souls are immortal and above 
price, that they cost the life of Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God. Who, then, would dare place a money value 

20* 



234 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

on the worth of a human soul ? Who would estimate, 
by money, the value of the work of an Asbury, a 
Maffitt, a Simpson, a McClintock, or the work of any 
earnest minister of Jesus Christ? 

Some of our ministers seem to grow thin in spirit 
and flesh through dissatisfaction with their calling, 
while the fathers, with real discomfort and with great 
sacrifices, grew strong in spirit, "making mirth," as 
Kouse has it, and gained flesh as well. But, grant- 
ing all that may be urged about the sacrifices demanded 
of the ministry by the itinerancy, it amounts to this : 
If the greatest amount of good can be done in this 
way, if it is the best use of the material, then Christ's 
cause being so far above human complaints or incon- 
veniences, such complaints have no place in the argu- 
ment, but must be regarded as entirely secondary and 
subordinate. Before proceeding in the discussion of 
this question of the extension of time it may be well 
to understand that while propositions have been made 
for an extension of time, such cases have been urged as 
exceptional, to be used only in certain emergencies, or 
to meet peculiar wants. Let not the church be de- 
ceived by such a statement. The same argument was 
used at the time of the extension to three years, and it 
immediately became the rule so far as it could be made, 
the ministers feeling aggrieved if not returned to a 
station the third time ; they make three years the rule, 
less time the exception ; so it will be with any increase 
of time. 

In analyzing the wisdom of a prolonged term of ser- 
vice, it will be found to depend on the characters of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 235 

the answers to two questions. First : How will any 
extension of time affect the principle of the itinerancy ? 
Second : How would such extension of time affect the 
ministers of the church, their usefulness and accepta- 
bility ? 

In the answers to these questions will be found the 
true solution of a problem which is so deeply agitating 
the minds of some of the ministry. 

First, then, the principle of the itinerancy is well un- 
derstood as being the securing of the services of the min- 
isters for the largest number of places in the country 
without regard to number of members, location, climate, 
health, or means of support, and the highest average 
of ability, in all respects, for all places. Any change 
which would limit the ability of the bishops to supply 
with preachers the smallest number of people, the 
poorest and most ignorant of the race, in the most dis- 
tant section of country, in the least desirable climate, 
in the most unhealthy places, and with the most uncom- 
fortable surroundings, would be an invasion of the 
principle of the itinerancy, and would affect the effi- 
ciency of the church to the extent of such inability. 
While there may be but few places in the older Confer- 
ences which could not be supplied if a longer term of 
service was allowed, yet the fact that the people of any 
section of any Conference would be left unsupplied is 
a sufficient argument against a change of time. 

Many ministers in the older Conferences are even 
now unwilling to go for even one or two years to the 
unhealthy places, to hard appointments, to a lowly and 
humble people, and to a poor and uncertain support. 



236 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

They plead their families' Deeds, their personal prefer- 
ences, they urge that they are prepared to fill better 
appointments, that it would be a humiliation to them 
to be sent to such charges, that it would lower their 
Conference position among their brethren, and would 
operate against their future elevation. It is this kind 
of objections and pleas, this sort of failure to measure 
up to the mark of a true minister, to properly value 
the honor and duty of his calling, to imitate the Mas- 
ter and His apostles and disciples, who went about 
among the lowly doing good, healing the sick, giving 
sight to the blind, and making the lame and the halt 
leap for joy; it is this class of objections, it is re- 
peated, that gives the bishops much of their trouble 
in assigning men to appointments. It is at this point, 
too, where dissatisfaction takes its rise, and herein is the 
foundation of many of the complaints about transfers, 
and the demand for an extension of time. 

In some of the older Conferences there may be a 
higher average of desirability in the stations and cir- 
cuits, yet in the majority of the Conferences there are 
many places which are not supplied with preaching; 
many poor people who can give but little ; and many 
unhealthy and undesirable districts. Wherever a family 
or a settlement is made in this vast country with its 
rapidly-increasing population, is found a place for a 
Methodist itinerant to preach the gospel. There is just 
as much need, taking the country as a whole, for the 
retention of the ability to supply all such places as there 
ever was, probably more, estimating the extent of coun- 
try settled and the number of its population. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 237 

This question of extension of time must be judged 
as a whole for the whole church and all the country. 
Though it were possible that a prolongation of time 
might not materially decrease the efficiency of the itin- 
erancy in certain parts of the older Conferences, where 
its spirit is almost extinguished, yet if such extension of 
service is not applicable to the whole church, it should 
not be accepted. 

The self-denial herein demanded of the ministers is 
in principle the same kind of sacrifice, if it can be so 
called, that is now made by the laymen in giving up the 
services of the more acceptable ministers that weaker 
appointments may have the advantage of their labors, 
and that the full benefits of the itinerancy may be en- 
joyed by the members in all sections of our country. 
It cannot be denied that the adoption of the three 
years' limit has increased the difficulty of reaching 
scattered populations, unhealthy districts, and weak 
charges, even in the older Conferences, and it is a fair 
inference that the longer the time the greater will be 
this difficulty. 

This experience should be sufficient to rule out all 
applications for increased time, however strong and 
conclusive other arguments may be. 

But the extension of time would operate against the 
second cardinal point in the Methodist organization, — 
the securing a better average of preaching in all the 
appointments. While it is true there seems to be a 
certain general level of ability in the pulpit, because 
the natural ability of men does not greatly vary, yet 
there is a sufficient variety in peculiar lines that makes 



238 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

frequent changes desirable and useful. Some are 
mighty in exhortation, in gathering in from the world ; 
others in building up the believers; others in their 
personal influence, and so on. Adding together these 
varied characteristics of eight or ten Methodist preach- 
ers in a continuous service of from twenty to thirty 
years at any one station, and it will produce a sum of 
ability to reach and influence for good a greater num- 
ber of people than is possible to the average men in the 
ministry of any church, if not to the most gifted men. 

A failure for the future in these two great results of 
the itinerancy in the past would be destructive of the 
life and spirit of Methodism. The laity understand 
this ; they have borne with the last change patiently ; 
they will not accept any further extension of time. 

The second test of this question of extension of time 
will be considered, — viz., its effect on the usefulness 
and acceptability of the ministry of the church. While 
it is acknowledged that length of service is, in a sense, 
arbitrary, that it should be suited to circumstances, and 
may be judged by its influence on the capacity of the 
church to reach the people everywhere, and to give the 
highest average of ministerial service, yet it is fair to 
consider these points in connection with the number, 
character, natural ability, acquirements, and piety of 
the men who are to do the work. 

The ministers must accept the judgment of the laity 
as to these points; they are unfit judges of their own 
ability, wisdom, character, piety, usefulness, and accept- 
ability. These matters affect too closely their per- 
sonal appreciation, preferences, and family interests. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 239 

Public teachers are very apt to overestimate themselves 
at all these points, more particularly their ability in 
the pulpit, their judgment, acceptability, and useful- 
ness. Ministers of all the churches are subject to this 
criticism. There will be a wide difference in the num- 
ber of Pauls, of Apolloses, of Johns, and of Peters in 
the ministry, according as taken at the estimate of the 
individual ministers or that of their hearers. 

It is but fair to consider the arguments some of the 
ministers use in favor of increased length of service, so 
that, with the whole subject before the church, a fair 
conclusion may be reached upon the wisdom of any 
change. The principal arguments used, leaving out 
purely personal considerations, are two : 

First : That a minister can, in many instances, be 
more useful when stationed for four, five, six, or more 
years, than he can when limited to a term of three. To 
secure care and protection at this point, these brethren 
suggest that, in all cases of extension beyond the three 
years, the appointment shall meet the approval of the 
Quarterly Conference, of the Annual Conference, and 
of the presiding bishop, thus uniting the will or wish 
of the members and the judgment of the Annual Con- 
ference with that of the elders and bishop. With what 
seeming innocency do these ministers link the Con- 
ferences with the bishops, making them part of the 
appointing power ! 

Secondly : That our church loses in prestige and 
influence in our large cities through the ministers being 
removed before they can gain a proper position before 
the public. 



240 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN TEE 

To help answer these two arguments, and to more 
clearly comprehend the whole question of ministerial 
usefulness, it may be well somewhat critically to analyze 
the elements of the power of the ministers of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and again to refer to some of 
the causes of their success. Methodism has been called 
Christianity in earnest. This was the chief character- 
istic of its preaching in the past, is to a great extent 
to-day, and on its continuance depends much of its 
usefulness. It is said that these preachers produced 
their results by exciting the emotions and by appeal- 
ing to the passions of rude people, and that such influ- 
ences produced many of the extraordinary scenes of 
the past. Those who say this have little knowledge 
of the forces in human nature ; they forget the char- 
acter and condition of the people on whom such effects 
were produced. The sparsely-settled country, the felt 
influence of the infidelity of the times, the demoraliza- 
tion consequent on the revolutionary struggle and a 
continuous warfare with the Indian tribes, the general 
ignorance as to Christian teachings, the limited oppor- 
tunities of hearing the gospel preached, the infrequent 
meetings for religious services, the lack of religious 
reading, the scarcity of the Bible, — these and other 
causes prepared all classes of the people, from the 
highest to the lowest, from the most learned to the 
most ignorant, for the effects produced by the earnest 
and plain preaching of the Methodist itinerants. It 
may be true that such results were more general among 
the rude and illiterate, who, when their eyes were 
opened by stirring exhortations and vivid descriptions 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 241 

to see their condition before God, acted naturally and 
without the restraints that the religious dilettante would 
impose upon them; they sought with loud cries and 
tears and found peace within their souls ; the lions and 
tigers became as lambs, and little children could lead 
and teach them. 

It is a proud boast of Methodism that it has preached 
the gospel to all peoples, and that the Spirit of God has 
owned its work in raising up men and women from 
the lowest as well as from the highest classes. The 
first object with the Methodist preacher has always 
been to save the soul, the Spirit working with it as it 
might. If the heart is thoroughly changed, it matters 
little as to the influence of personal characteristics in 
the struggle for pardon, or the method or manner of 
the expression of joy in the knowledge of such change, 
through the witness of the Holy Spirit. 

The Methodist ministers have combined arguments 
with their appeals, but their arguments on religious 
questions have been rather inferences drawn from the 
teachings of faith. The religion of Jesus Christ can- 
not be defended by human reasoning; its foundation 
is faith. Man cannot comprehend the origin of cre- 
ation, of his own being, the existence of God, or the 
mysteries of the Triune God, the method of the pres- 
ence and influence of the Holy Spirit, the origin of 
life, nature and effects of death, of the resurrection. 
Man knows nothing of itself; he notes results, and 
sometimes thinks he reasons. The religion of Jesus 
Christ is founded on faith in the word of God. The 
teacher of this word is limited to persuading men to 

L q 21 



242 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

be reconciled according to the terms of faith in God. 
Man must be taught that to live with Christ here is 
the best, the truest life. The power of the preacher is 
displayed in his portraying the love of the Father, of 
Jesus Christ, His Son, and of the Holy Spirit for man. 
Love is built upon faith and trust, not on reason. 
Every one should feel thankful to God that when his 
reasoning reaches its maximum of power without 
satisfying the soul, faith is given to solve our prob- 
lems. 

The gospel of Christ is one of reconciliation, of love. 
The minister's appeals are therefore to the heart. This 
is the best and truest part of man • his reason may lead 
him astray; the affections are more reliable, the instincts 
are more true, and on the cultivation of the affections 
is to be built up Christian character, as well as all 
other character. All successful ministers have had 
the power of sympathetic connection with their hearers. 
Men are brought to Christ through their hearts, and 
not through their heads. This kind of preaching has 
characterized Methodist ministers, and, though many 
of them have been as learned as other ministers, they 
have generally held fast to this theory of successful 
preaching ; and when they have abandoned it, in whole 
or in part, and assumed the argumentative and learned- 
essay style, their success has diminished. There may 
be a temptation to young men to appear learned in the 
pulpit and to ignore the experience of their fathers; 
older men should not yield to it. 

Then, again, there are among the Methodist min- 
isters a great many who are not learned, and who cannot 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 243 

produce well-written essays on moral subjects to be de- 
livered to their people ; when they attempt this they 
fail. But they can tell their religious experience, and 
perhaps weave the words of Charles Wesley's hymns 
into heart melodies, and thereby do good. 

Again, the people expect the Methodist minister to 
do his best in every sermon, and the same degree of 
effort must go with Jrim into the class-meeting, the 
prayer-meeting, and into all the church services ; and 
this is one reason why the average preaching in the 
Methodist Churches is better and more effective than 
in any other church. There may be more learning in 
the Presbyterian pulpit, but it lacks the fire, the Slan. 
The expression of this fire and Man is exhaustive of 
the nervous system ; it exposes a man's inner life, 
character, and his powers of mind more quickly to a 
people than the reading of many beautiful homilies on 
religion. The Methodist pulpit is therefore more try- 
ing to the minister than any other. The members are 
accustomed to this kind of preaching; they are not 
content with anything less, and this is one point in 
which the argument in favor of extension of time 
drawn from prolonged service of ministers in other 
churches fails. The style and character of the preach- 
ing which prevails in other religious churches will not 
be accepted by Methodist people. There are but few 
men in the ministry of any church who can do this 
kind of work and keep up a full interest for more 
than two or, at the outside, three years. There is 
scarcely a minister in any evangelical church in the 
cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Balti- 



244 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

more who could fully sustain himself for more than 
three years in a Methodist pulpit. 

As soon as the range of a preacher's mental powers, 
character of thought, arguments, and sympathetic na- 
ture is measured by a people, his usefulness is so nearly 
at an end that they look forward to the next Annual 
Conference for another victim of their exhausting and 
exacting demands. It is in this way that the Meth- 
odist ministry is kept at its best work, the closest to 
its abilities; and it is due to these demands that so 
many become unacceptable at an early age. If it were 
not for the short term of an appointment from year to 
year, an enforced supernumerary relation would be vis- 
ited upon many more of the ministers. When a 
preacher ceases to improve in knowledge, grace, and 
interest in saving souls, he has no proper place in the 
ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. If, 
then, the time should be lengthened, its consequential 
results, decreased efficiency and loss of energy, must 
be met ; the character and grade of service in the pul- 
pit must be lowered to that of other pulpits, and with 
such lowering of standard much of the glory of Meth- 
odism will depart. It may hang its harps on the wil- 
lows, for the strings that made such sweet sounds will 
have broken. 

The argument used for extension of time in par- 
ticular cases has, of course, some force, but, as has been 
noticed, there is always a practical difficulty in making 
general laws suit special cases, as the tendency is to 
make all cases special, which would be destructive of 
the object and principle of the law. The Roman 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 245 

Catholic Church has an advantage in its organization 
from the fact that the priests being unmarried, their 
length of service is more readily determined by their 
success, the time of service being exclusively in the 
control of the bishop. The use of such arbitrary 
power is out of the question in the Methodist Church ; 
even the present law in the Discipline recognizing 
special cases has had its fruit in unsettling the minds 
of some of the ministers. If such special cases were 
confined to those where unusually hard and undesira- 
ble work was to be done, with little pay, there might 
be less injury, for there would be fewer applicants. 

An argument frequently used in favor of a longer 
term of service is that that the present limit of time 
deprives a church of the advantages connected with a 
settled pastorate, in the personal influence of the pastor 
over the members and their families, and more particu- 
larly over the young in the church. This argument is 
worthy of consideration. 

Much of this idea of the power and benefit of pas- 
toral influence is drawn from the recollection or his- 
torical handing down of the relation of the New Eng- 
land pastor of days long gone by to his people and 
their families. Whatever may be the cause, yet such 
a relation is now the exception ; the instances of long- 
settled pastorates in any church are rare, and are de- 
creasing in number. The average length of pastoral 
service is said not to exceed four to five years in the 
Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, five years 
in the Episcopal, and four years in the Baptist Churches. 
Counting the time lost in selecting a pastor, and the 

21* 



246 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

loss of pastoral influence during a disaffection until a 
change comes, and the useful period of a pastor's stay 
in any of these churches is greatly lessened, not averag- 
ing at most over three years. 

The average time given for personal influence in 
these churches is not, therefore, more than in a term 
of three years in a Methodist Church, and the compari- 
son of work performed is in favor of the Methodist 
preacher. The called preacher needs time to smooth 
down opposition, to become acquainted with his people. 
His work is laid out as if his new charge was to be a 
continuing home, and one or more years slip away be- 
fore he gets fully into it, while the Methodist preacher 
knows that at most he has but three years in which to 
serve a church, and must therefore do his best from 
the first sermon. The social habits of the Methodist 
people are such as to make the preacher feel quickly at 
home, and the work goes on without interruption. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church, in its early organization, 
made provision to meet the loss of pastoral service by 
placing this duty on the class-leaders. All the members 
being enrolled in some class, each one was under the 
special pastoral supervision of his class-leader, thereby 
providing for the pastoral care of the flock while the 
preacher was engaged in evangelistic labors. This is 
another instance of the wonderful adaptation of the 
economy of the Methodist Episcopal Church to circum- 
stances. In the theory of the church the class-leaders 
are, if not the pastors, the sub-pastors of every station 
or circuit. 

The increase of stations and the decrease of circuits 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 247 

in the older Conferences now enable the preachers in 
charge to do most of the pastoral work, and therefore 
the use of the leaders in this respect is not so general ; 
but in large parts of our field the original and theo- 
retical plan and policy of the church are continued. 

After these statements it may be asked, Wherein 
would the members gain the benefit of a more perfect 
pastoral influence by the extension of the time of ser- 
vice? What advantages in this direction would such 
extension secure to the church? 

Unless there was some assurance that the ministers 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church would be retained 
in an appointment for as long as, or for a longer time 
than the average of the term of service of the pastors 
of other churches, it would be unwise to base any 
church laws on a mere possibility. The results of 
experience must be taken as the foundation of law and 
administration. Experience certainly teaches that the 
time of the long pastorates has passed away, and for 
some of the reasons that have made the short pastor- 
ates in the Methodist Episcopal Church so successful ; 
that the controlling influence of the pastors of a former 
day over a people and over the young no longer pre- 
vails; that the average length of an active pastorate 
is no longer than the term of the majority of Methodist 
preachers. 

The questions asked may, in view of these facts, be 
answered by the fair inferences, that the length of 
service of the Methodist pastors, whatever the law may 
be, would not exceed the average length of the services 
of the ministers of other churches; that while the 



248 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

other churches are limited to one pastor, and when the 
pulpit is vacant are without any pastor, the provisions 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church supply a church 
at all times with at least one chief pastor and one, two, 
three, four, or more sub-pastors in the class-leaders; 
that the experience of other churches in securing the 
benefits of prolonged pastoral influence offers no proper 
reasons or inducements for any change in the term of 
service in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

If the policy of the church is faithfully followed, 
there will be no necessity that provision should be 
made for the special instances where an increase of 
time might aid the pastor in taking care of the fruits 
of a revival or the completion of improvements. The 
church has made ample provision for such cases. The 
defect is in the men who may fail to use them. Human 
laws are imperfect : they are made to cover and secure 
the best average of results. It is only Divine wisdom 
that can provide for every interest. Perfection is an 
attribute of Divinity only, not of man. 

The argument that the Methodist Episcopal Church 
loses her proper influence in large cities and communi- 
ties from the short term of service deserves notice. This 
argument is attractive because it appeals so directly to 
the vanity of many men, who at once fancy themselves 
as settled pastors in important churches in some large 
city ; forgetting, or perhaps not being conscious of the 
fact that they have probably served no church for three 
years where the membership were not willing to ex- 
change their services for those of another pastor. The 
influence of the minister as such, — however noted he 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 249 

may be for ability or idiosyncrasies of mind and man- 
ner — on public thought, opinion, and action, is steadily 
decreasing, not on account of the increased ungod- 
liness of the people, but by reason of their increased 
intelligence and piety. The same reason affects the 
social and church influence of the ministers. In the 
former days the minister was the one highly-educated 
man in a parish, and his people listened with amazement 
at the learning shown in his Sunday tussles with dog- 
matic theology. Teaching and exhortation in practical 
theology are now demanded ; these require more grace 
and true power in the preacher, and any failure therein 
is readily apprehended by his hearers. The influence 
of Methodist preaching has been potent in producing 
this change in the demands of other churches, with 
the result of decreased length of service in the Presby- 
terian, Congregational, Episcopal, and other churches. 
If these churches adopt Methodist usages, should not 
Methodists hesitate before changing their laws to suit 
the policy which other churches are abandoning? 

The argument from personal influence has less force, 
because there are few ministers who are head and 
shoulders above their fellows, and who acquire more 
than a strong influence in their own church. An error 
is apt to be made as to the extent of the direct personal 
influence of leading ministers in cities. The minister 
represents an individual church or denomination, and 
his influence on the public is largely as the representa- 
tive of the opinion and position of the members of 
the church he represents. As they have social standing, 
high moral reputation, public confidence, so will the 



250 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

influence of the minister be increased or decreased. 
Public opinion is made by the laity of the church. 
Finally, to meet the few instances where prolonged 
service might be advantageous and acceptable to the 
laity of any particular station would scarcely war- 
rant a change in the laws of the church. Better for 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, if we have ministers 
who would acquire so great influence as settled pastors, 
that they should locate or resign and accept the pasto- 
rate of independent churches. The argument drawn 
from the gain to the church from such settled pastorates 
is very illusory. Mere worldly renown is not what a 
church should seek ; it can have no higher honor than 
to have its efforts recognized and blessed by Christ. 
Ministers noted for oratory or for peculiarities, such 
as Beecher and Talmage, will attract strangers to a 
church and may do them good ; but if a minister has 
such gifts, he will attract more hearers from outside of 
the church in an itinerant pastorate than when settled ; 
he then comes as a fresh man with a high reputation to 
a new people, and in the end will do more good. 

There are but few ministers in any denomination 
who have a national reputation; their influence extends 
but little beyond the people to whom they preach. 
Many able men who under the itinerancy would have 
had a widely-extended reputation are buried in a 
settled pastorate until the vigor of life is past and the 
ability to impress their hearers is gone. The settled 
pastorate does not develop men ; by necessity such pas- 
tors fall into a humdrum manner and a stereotyped 
style of preaching. This is felt by many of the min- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 251 

istry and laity of such churches, and they would fain 
adopt some way of securing regular changes and more 
constant employment for their ministry. 

A peculiarity in the itinerancy is, that while it de- 
velops all the powers, natural and acquired, which are 
in men who are industrious and faithful to their trust, 
it at the same time gives them a wider field for doing 
good. The prominent men in the Methodist ministry 
are more widely known by the people of the United 
States, and indeed in foreign lands, through the press, 
by the hearing of the ear, and by the seeing of the 
eye, than those of any other church ; and the great 
majority of Methodist preachers, from the weakest to 
the ablest, reach, through the itinerancy, more people 
in a service of thirty or forty years than the ablest 
men in other churches. What a field for usefulness ! 
What an encouragement to Methodist preachers to fail 
not in constantly doing their full and best work. 
Take the case of Mr. Spurgeon, of England, with all 
his marvellous success and the thousands of strangers 
who have attended his church in London; yet, is it 
not a fair inference that he would have done more 
good, have been the instrument of saving more souls, 
would have gained more influence and a greater repu- 
tation, if he had itinerated through the British Isles 
during the twenty-five years of his ministry? 

Let our ministers be satisfied with the fact that under 
a closely-limited itinerancy a faithful man will have all 
the reputation and influence to which his abilities and 
piety entitle him. 

Further, the plea that the more prominent churches 



252 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

desire an extension of time, that their relative position 
of influence with other churches may be increased, is 
not true, nor is there anywhere heard, except under 
the direct influence of the pastors, a whisper in favor 
of a change. 

Should the extension of time of service succeed, 
with the laity opposed to it, it may be profitable to 
forecast the probable influence of such extension on 
the ministry and the laity. If such extension should 
occur, one of two things will result : the laymen will be 
forced to demand protection at the hands of the bishops, 
and to secure it will control the purse. Such an ex- 
tension of time would cause them to be more careful 
as to their pastors ; it would increase the discrimina- 
tion among the ministers, and absolute arrangements 
would then be made between the ministers and the 
laymen. Such extension would ultimately force many 
out of the Conferences from pure want of support. 
The result would be either a return to the two years' 
plan or an alteration of the law, by changing the pro- 
vision which compels the bishop presiding to give an 
appointment to every minister in good standing, and 
confining his duties to an approval of the agreements 
made between the ministers and the churches. Taking, 
then, a broader view of the question of extension of 
time, will not the ministry come to see witli the laity, 
that there is danger to the church in this effort of their 
brethren to gain and perpetuate their power by extend- 
ing the time of service beyond three years ? 

Will they not see that injury to the Master's work 
will come? 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 253 

First : By a reduction of the efficiency of the 
church. 

Second : From the changed character of ministerial 
service and the lessened effectiveness of pulpit minis- 
trations. 

Third: From the difficulties it will create in the 
relations between the ministry and the people. 

Fourth: In the injury it will inflict on many good 
men in the ministry, their wives and children, by 
forcing them out of the work. 

COLORED STATEMENTS. 

The sixth danger to the ministry arises from the temp- 
tation, for the supposed benefit of a church interest, to 
make statements orally, or by reports, or by communica- 
tions, which are not strictly true, or in making false im- 
pressions by the suppression of the truth. Many minis- 
ters pride themselves on their ability as church beggars, 
but few preserve the respect of those who have been asso- 
ciated with them. Their methods are well understood, 
they need no exposition, and cannot be defended. The 
taking of collections, for church and denominational 
purposes, affords constant proof of the presence of the 
temptation to the ministers to mislead the people. By 
such conduct a doubt is cast upon the accuracy of 
financial statements coming from the pulpit, from the 
church boards, from the local and other charities; 
it affects the administration of every society of which 
the ministers have the management. Clerical solicitors 
who are permitted, under some kind of church author- 
ity, to make personal as well as public appeals for aid 

22 



254 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

for perhaps worthy objects, are very liable to yield to 
this temptation. 

The confidence of the church has been so often 
abused by this class that it may be a question if they 
do not more injury to the general interests of the 
church than good to specific cases. This subject is so 
delicate in its nature that perhaps the notice thus taken 
of it may suggest greater care in the future, both by 
pastors in charge, the representatives and agents of 
church societies, and travelling solicitors. The church 
cannot afford to have the integrity or the truthfulness 
of its ministry questioned. To have their proper in- 
fluence, and to do the most good, and to preserve the 
confidence of the membership and the public, they 
must be above suspicion. 



POWER OF THE PURSE. 

The seventh danger to the ministry is found in the de- 
sire to retain the control of the purse of the church. This 
danger has hereinbefore been noticed. The ministers 
have now the practical control of all the financial in- 
terests of the church, from the power secured through 
the appointment of the stewards in the Quarterly Con- 
ferences up to and including the management of its 
educational and benevolent work and publishing in- 
terests. To retain such control is a strong temptation to 
frail humanity, but this is the policy of the ministerial 
party. The ministers should remember the teachings 
of history and the tendency of constitutional govern- 
ments in this respect ; they should know that the people 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 255 

in all countries, except in absolute monarchies, have 
demanded, fought for, and secured control of the purse, 
because there was no liberty or good government when 
the purse is controlled by or through the crown. The 
same wise and conservative provision prevails in our 
own country. All bills for expending money must 
originate in the popular assembly, the House of Rep- 
resentatives. In the great organizations of mankind, 
the exceptions to this most just principle are in the 
autocratic governments of the Old World, in the Roman 
Catholic, and in the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
the United States. If the experience of mankind 
teaches that the holding and exercise of this power 
over the purse tends to corrupt governments, how can 
the church escape? This power has injured it in the 
past, is corrupting it to-day, and will produce disaster 
in the future. The only safety lies in taking it out of 
the hands of the ministers. They hold it in violation 
of their calling. The vocation of the minister is to 
preach the everlasting truths of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, not to use the money of the church for the 
power it gives in the world. 



UNDUE INFLUENCE. 

The eighth danger to the church arises from the temp- 
tation to the ministers in large cities and centres of 
population to secure undue influence over their brethren 
for their special purposes. It is well for the lovers of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church to look very closely 
at this source of danger. 



256 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

History establishes two facts : 

First : That the broadest-minded men and the ablest 
leaders of men are the products of the country as dis- 
tinguished from cities or centres of large population. 

Second : That rebellions, revolutions, and treason 
against governments have their origin and first life in 
cities or in densely-populated districts. If they are 
generated in the loneliness of the country, the heat of 
numbers is necessary to give them life and force. 

The same laws apply to church governments; the 
dissatisfied, the disappointed, the unworthy, and the 
ambitious ministers can do but little in sowing seeds of 
disaffection towards the church or rebellion against it 
in country districts, villages, and in small towns. The 
large city offers greater facilities for combinations to 
carry out a settled plan, for in such places there are 
ministers of all grades. They frequently meet in book- 
rooms and in preachers' associations ; they compare 
notes of their disappointments and bad treatment by 
bishops and elders, and work themselves up to believe 
that in place of being the most favored ministry of all 
the churches they are the most oppressed. Such men 
are in prime condition to be manipulated by the min- 
isterial class party. They are duly trained upon the 
disposition of their votes for General Conference dele- 
gates, and are in a fit condition to do as their lead- 
ers bid them. They are in that frame of mind which 
enables leaders of revolutions and rebellions to handle 
unthinking masses : first, by making them believe that 
they are oppressed ; and, second, that they will lead 
them into a land of promise. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 257 

The ministers and the laymen of the church outside 
of the great cities must carefully watch the utterances 
from preachers' meetings, the opinions of ministers who 
have long resided in cities, the teachings of the church 
papers, great or small, and all movements as to the 
polity of the church that originate in the cities in which 
are established book-rooms and church boards. 



CONFERENCE AID SOCIETIES. 

The ninth danger to the church is in the temptation 
to the ministers to interfere with the operation of the 
system of transfers, by reason of their personal interest 
in the various forms of aid and insurance societies that 
have grown up in the different Conferences. 

It is acknowledged that these societies were the pro- 
duct of a necessity, that they have been very useful 
in relieving widows and orphans, that they have 
made many a minister's mind more easy as to the 
future of his family, that their help has come oppor- 
tunely to meet the wants of families deprived of their 
head, and that in and of themselves they are most 
laudable institutions; but the question comes up: 
Have they any tendencies that are injurious to the 
church as a whole? The church, in view of what has 
already been written, will see, First, that they have a 
tendency to militate against the essence of the itinerancy 
in the needed facility of transferring ministers from 
one part of the work to another. In almost all of 
these societies the benefits are confined to the members 
of the Conference. To lose their interests in a society 
r 22* 



258 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

to which they may have contributed for a number of 
years, and in which they have acquired a valuable 
estate, is felt by the ministers to be a serious matter. 
The possibility of being transferred prevents many 
preachers from availing themselves of the benefits of 
such associations. 

Second : That the interest in these societies increases 
the tendency to assert for an Annual Conference a 
separate existence and an entity involving rights and 
privileges inconsistent with the theory of the organiza- 
tion of the church, and thereby adds strength to the 
ministerial party, who are claiming specific rights as a 
class. 

Thirdly : These societies have a tendency to separate 
the just claims of the ministry from the consciences 
and sympathies of the laity, and to thereby deprive 
the laymen of the benefits arising from a proper per- 
formance of all their duty to the church. 

These societies have come into being because of a 
failure or the inability of the laymen to do their whole 
work as Christians. When the preachers are relieved 
from the care of all monetary affairs and are relegated 
to their proper work, — the care of the spiritual inter- 
ests of their membership and of their fellow- beings, — 
and when the laymen are introduced as coequal legis- 
lators in the church, then it will be their duty to pro- 
vide for the material interests of their pastors. A min- 
ister's church is one thing, a people's church another. 
When the latter comes, there should be no necessity 
for Preachers' Aid Societies. 

It can scarcely be questioned that the knowledge 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 259 

by the members of the church that the ministers and 
their families receive aid from the Chartered Fund, 
from the Book Concern, from Sustentation Funds, and 
from the different kinds of aid societies, reduces the 
collections for the worn out, the superannuated preachers 
and their families. Such a result is in accordance with 
experience and observation, and suggests some consid- 
eration of a collateral question. 



ENDOWMENTS. 

When are endowments or foundations for benevolent 
institutions desirable ? A ready answer is, that they 
are necessary in all cases where a fixed income is re- 
quired, and where the object is one that does not appeal 
directly to the sympathies of a church or of a people. 
Educational institutions, hospitals, asylums for the 
unfortunate, and such like interests, require endow- 
ments. 

The benevolent and charitable institutions of a 
church are intended as much to develop the Christian 
characteristics of kindness, sympathy, and self-sacrifice 
in the contributors as to do good to others. Unless 
endowed institutions are of such public and general 
church interest as to secure a watchful care over them, 
they will fall into the control of a few, their offices 
will become sinecures, and the people will lose the 
benefit of the provisions made for their benefit. It 
was found a few years back, in London, that many 
endowed societies failed to perform their duties, and 
that the objects of some endowments had ceased to 



260 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

exist, and the interest of the fund was all used for the 
support of officials who did no work. 

No endowments are requisite for the best work of 
benevolent and charitable institutions. When these 
are brought so close to the contributors that they know 
the work done by each institution, they will then feel 
that the responsibility is on them to supply their 
financial needs. 

These suggestions refer properly to endowments for 
churches, for worn-out preachers, homes for the aged, 
for orphans, and for the many charities that abound 
in this country. They are made for the sake of show- 
ing that endowments tend to separate the beneficiaries 
from the people; and they are applicable to the differ- 
ent aid and relief funds in the Conferences. It may 
be well here to remind the laymen that the claim of the 
worn-out and superannuated preachers, their widows 
and orphans, for support is not based on charity, but is 
a matter of personal duty, as binding on them as the 
care of their own households. With the suggested 
changes in the church polity, the tax on the ministers 
to support these aid and insurance funds should not be 
required, and all temptations arising therefrom to inter- 
fere with the fixed policy of the church would be re- 
moved. 

CONCLUSION. 

The best correctives of the dangers to which the min- 
istry is liable, through these several described tempta- 
tions, will be applied when the legislation of the church 
is placed on a proper basis by the introduction of the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 261 

laymen into all its councils, securing thereby the more 
perfect working of the itinerancy, by keeping the busi- 
ness of the Annual Conferences within proper limits, 
by more fully carrying out the policy of transfers, by a 
more constant introduction of the broad thoughts of the 
country to defeat the machinations of ambitious men 
in the cities, and by providing proper care for all who 
need help and comfort. 



262 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 



CHAPTEE Y. 

The dangers that threaten the peace, purity, and prosperity of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church from an abuse of the repre- 
sentative power held by the Colored Conferences. 

The presence of the colored representatives in the 
last General Conference, their average intelligence, 
their liability to be used by shrewd ecclesiastical pol- 
iticians (the ratio they held to the whole number of 
delegates being about one to nine),* must have sug- 
gested to thoughtful brethren a serious question of the 
wisdom of the continuance of the policy of the church 
as to them, both for their religious growth and wel- 
fare and for the peace, purity, and prosperity of the 
church. It is a broad question, and much may be 
said on both sides ; time, it is trusted, will soon solve 
the problem. 

A conclusive argument in favor of separation would 
be made if it could be satisfactorily proven that the 

* The actual number of colored men elected as delegates to 
the last General Conference was forty-three (43), but there were 
forty-five (45) delegates from the Conferences known as colored. 
These delegates may be accepted as representatives of the colored 
people, and as expressing their opinions in all cases. There were 
also twenty-one delegates (twelve clerical and nine lay) from 
mixed Conferences. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 263 

connection as it now exists is injurious and demoral- 
izing to both parties, if it could be shown that their 
presence is a danger and has a corrupting influence on 
the main body of the church, and that such separa- 
tion could be made without injury to the colored man. 
There has been an unwillingness — a hesitation — on the 
part of the church to discuss this question, but the 
undoubted use that was made of the colored votes in 
the last General Conference to secure places was so 
patent to every careful observer that it cannot be kept 
down. 

The ease with which the influence and votes of 
these innocent and generally very ignorant represen- 
tatives were secured by those nearest to them, shows 
how great a danger there would be in the abuse of the 
confidence placed by them in their avowed friends. 
There is always danger in the presence, in a delibera- 
tive assembly, of any important number of members 
who are incapable of forming a correct opinion and are 
easily influenced. It is the object of ambitious leaders to 
win their support. If this is the case in the Assemblies, 
the Parliaments, the Congresses, — and there is acknowl- 
edged danger in it, — how much greater the danger in 
a Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, where 
extremely ignorant with a few educated men represent 
the large ratio of one in nine of its members. Does 
not this large proportion of ignorant men grade down 
the intelligence and wisdom of the whole body to a 
level too low for safety to, and for the guidance and 
control of, the interests of Christ's cause, as represented 
by the Methodist Episcopal Church? This danger is 



264 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

increased by the absence of any second house, on which 
all constitutionally governed countries depend for con- 
servative influence. These are serious considerations. 
The members of the church must place a true value on 
the touching eloquence they have heard as to the great 
work among the negroes in the South ; they must not 
give away their judgment to sentiment, they must con- 
sider the facts in the case and their influence on the 
church. There was a great deal of true sympathy, of 
a realization of Christian and patriotic duty, among 
the ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church when, at the close of the war, there were found 
to be several millions of ignorant people cut loose from 
their old masters and made dependent on themselves, 
without the ability of their former owners to provide 
for them physical care and moral and religious teach- 
ing. In the demoralized condition of the South, there 
was an opening for the exercise of all such sympathy 
and Christian help, and these led the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church to send many ministers, teachers, and 
large amounts of money to establish churches, schools, 
and colleges for their religious, intellectual, and phys- 
ical benefit. Money was freely and often unwisely ex- 
pended by the Missionary Society and by the Board of 
Church Extension, but more prudently by the F reed- 
man's Aid Society. A great future was promised for 
the church ; valuable properties were purchased in New 
Orleans, Eichmond, Atlanta, and other places. 

It was broadly and boastfully proclaimed that the 
Methodist Episcopal Church had gone to the South to 
remain, and plans for its religious conquests were am- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 265 

bitiously laid. One result was inevitable. Large 
crowds of colored people were gathered into the church. 
Wherever and whenever material help was promised, 
the colored people were at hand to receive it. The 
annual reports of the church showed a sudden and 
large increase of membership. Annual Conferences 
were established without regard to color, and their del- 
egates were admitted in 1868 into the General Confer- 
ence. Newspapers were published by order of the 
General Conference, and the losses paid by the willing 
North. What other results have been found? The 
general imprudence and lack of knowledge of the 
agents and ministers sent to the South have blocked up 
the way of the church. The immoral character and 
the dishonest practices of some inflicted disgrace on the 
church and cast a doubt on all. A majority of the 
good and able men sent to the South left as soon as 
they could be relieved from their duty. Men were 
brought into the ministry, both white and colored, who 
were totally and absolutely unfit. Yet they counted in 
numbers, and the church North was satisfied. 

The church did not know the facts. It is said by 
those who know and judge impartially, that to-day 
there are but few men in any of the Southern colored 
and mixed Conferences who are fitted for their places, 
and that the colored members are still grossly immoral. 
These results might have been fairly anticipated from 
their circumstances and surroundings. The results 
of the work of the church in the South, as a whole, 
have not been satisfactory. The members are disap- 
pointed. These results come from the false theory on 
m 23 



266 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

which such work was begun, — from an ignorance or a 
failure to comprehend the condition, wants, and charac- 
ter of the people of the South, both white and black, and 
as a sequence, from a failure to adapt the work to meet 
such conditions, wants, and character. There was too 
much zeal for the accompanying knowledge. The state 
of public feeling in the North at the time must be ac- 
cepted as the apology for such errors of judgment. The 
mistakes have been committed, large amounts of money 
wasted, and the chances for usefulness of the church 
at many points largely diminished. It will be wisdom 
to hold the church to the present means of usefulness, 
and abandon hopes, plans, and ambitions which are 
now impossible. 

There are important movements among the colored 
people that should be noted. All will remember the 
enthusiastic patriotism, civil and religious, which was 
to abolish all color lines and all laws that recognized 
black and white or their intermediate shades. Yet a 
law of nature, of race, and of common sense is assert- 
ing itself among the colored people in that they want 
to be separated from such close connection with the 
white man. They feel that there is an incongruity, 
an unfitness, a something that causes them to desire to 
be freed from his presence and government. They 
have but little respect for the whites who remain 
among them. It is a growing belief among the more 
intelligent colored people that their religious growth 
would be increased by their independence of the white 
church. So strong is this feeling, in certain places, that 
a secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church and 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 267 

the formation of independent Methodist Churches is se- 
riously discussed. In obedience to this growing senti- 
ment the General Conference in 1884 recognized the 
policy of basing membership of Annual Conferences 
on a color line. 

An argument in favor of caution in treating this 
question may be drawn from the relation of the colored 
people to the interests of the country. The colored vote 
in the United States, due to a rapidly-increasing popu- 
lation (an increase said to be in excess of that of the 
white), is accepted as a source of danger in the future 
to this country. The present colored vote, as it has or 
has not had the privilege of free expression, has deter- 
mined who should be President of the United States. 
The loss of this vote by suppression may place a party in 
power whose policy may be contrary to the wishes of a 
majority of the people. The use of a free expression, 
by a vote, may place an opposite party in power. If 
the colored people should increase in greater proportion 
than the white population, it would require but a few 
decades of years to give them the controlling influence 
in the Southern States. It may or may not be an idle 
fear, but wise men are looking at the question in sober 
earnestness. The granting of the ballot to this people 
was, and is, an accepted ly great strain on the national 
principle which gives every man a vote. The people 
have felt this, and yet thought it better to hold on to 
the principle, with the hope that increased intelligence, 
independence of thought and action, and development 
of manhood among the colored people would, with 
each passing year, lessen the strain. There are ele- 



268 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ments of strength and safety for the state in meeting 
danger from this direction that a church does not have. 

The church, then, should be carefully guarded against 
danger arising from the presence of so large a colored 
membership through the use of its power in the Gen- 
eral Conference. 

The idea of separation for better work is not new 
among us. We have the German and Colored Con- 
ferences, and would have Scandinavian if there were 
enough Scandinavians. There is a law of association 
that is the best regulator of such questions. That a 
separation into Conferences on the color line will be- 
come general is inevitable. 

The questions will come up before the General Con- 
ference to decide, whether the colored ministers can be 
so educated as to continue in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church without any serious danger to its interests ; if 
not, the lesser must suffer, if suffering it would be, for 
the sake of the greater ; or whether, when they are pre- 
pared, they will not do more good by being transferred 
to some branch of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

There are the African, the Zion, and the Colored 
Methodist Episcopal Churches, which last was wisely set 
apart by the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church at the 
end of the w T ar. They are all strong, aggressive, and in- 
dependent churches. If the members of these churches 
could be united with the colored members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, they would make a member- 
ship of nearly one million of people. What an oppor- 
tunity for usefulness to their race would be thus placed 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 269 

before them ! It must be admitted that their continued 
connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church does 
not tend to promote their dependence upon themselves. 
Government aid makes a restless pauper class, church 
support has the same tendency. That the two races do 
not work well together, or rather that the colored 
churches do not prosper when intimately connected 
with white churches, is pretty well exemplified in the 
city of Philadelphia, where the only two colored 
churches, living side by side with the large white 
church membership of that city, had so dwindled 
in numbers and financial ability in 1884 that the 
Church Extension Society had practically to purchase 
two churches for their use, so that the colored brethren 
from the South might have a church home when they 
came to the General Conference. During the same 
time the African and the Zion Methodist Episcopal 
Churches have been very successful in that city, have 
done much good, have able bishops, leaders, and a re- 
spectable membership. On the one side there was de- 
pendency, and the other independency. 

It is risking but little to assert that the number, 
character, and self-reliance of the members of the 
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church South are far 
greater and better than they would have been if their 
connection had continued with the old church. 

A further thought deserves consideration at this 
point. If the colored members are to be continued in 
the church, or as long as such connection may last, 
would it not be to the interests of all parties to dissolve 
the Annual Conferences in which they are in a large 

23* 



270 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

majority, and form them into Mission Conferences, as 
they were prior to the General Conference of 1868, 
without a voting representation in the General Con- 
ference? By doing this the church would be saved 
from the low average grade of intelligence of the 
General Conference of 1884, caused by the presence 
of nearly forty of such representatives, and from the 
corrupting influences that were so palpable. The col- 
ored people would then understand that their connec- 
tion was not permanent, but was in the line of edu- 
cating them to take care of themselves. In the mean 
time the church could continue its good work in giving 
them the advantages of education, training in trades, 
and to the most promising, a fitting education for the 
ministry and learned professions. 

The suggestions made hereinbefore as to the proper 
basis of representation in the General Conference, con- 
nected with that of the last paragraph, would reduce 
the number of delegates to the General Conference 
from the Colored Conferences, and thereby lessen the 
danger. It is important that this or some other pro- 
tective plan should be adopted before the separation 
that is inevitable between the white and colored work 
takes place. No mere pride of numbers or prestige 
should have any influence to prevent the church from 
saying to the colored brethren, " Go in peace, and may 
the God of heaven protect and guide you," and with 
this benediction handing over to them all the churches, 
colleges, and property that have been accumulated for 
their use. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 271 



CHAPTER VI. 

The influence of a thorough introduction of the laity, in every 
department of church legislation and work, on its prosperity ; 
on the piety, effectiveness, and comfort of the ministry ; and 
on the usefulness of the laity. 

Having shown how an approximately fair repre- 
sentation of the laity may be engrafted on the present 
organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church with 
profit and advantage to all parties, and with injury to 
no person or interest, it is proper, before making a 
rhumS of the whole discussion, to consider what the 
advantages are which will accrue to the church from 
the introduction of the laymen into all its councils. 
These advantages will be general to the church at large 
and personal as to the membership. Wherein the church 
will gain will be readily seen from a glance at the room 
there is for improvement between the interest the aver- 
age member now takes in its progress and success and 
the abiding interest he might and should have. The 
following picture of the average lay member will be 
acknowledged as correct : 

The lay brethren and sisters come into the church to 
find its services all they desire. The gospel preached 
meets their approbation ; the helps in their Christian 
life are suited to their necessities; the spiritual part of 



272 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the church is entirely satisfactory ; they want nothing 
more; there can be nothing better. They find the 
offices filled by brethren in whom they have con- 
fidence ; they learn of the Annual and General Con- 
ferences and of the different church boards, and dis- 
cover that these are under the control of the ministry. 
They suppose this is all for the best ; they acquiesce 
and finally approve ; they feel that it removes all 
burdens from their shoulders, with a sprinkling of trust 
that the power would not be thus bestowed and so long 
held unless it met Divine approval, and that in some 
way it is a right thing for the church to be ruled by 
the ministers of Christ. They pay what they suppose 
is a fair proportion towards the support of their pastor 
and the elders. When the various benevolent causes 
are brought before them, without any specific knowl- 
edge of their merits and with almost no knowledge of 
their management, they contribute their share of the 
amount the preacher tells them is assessed upon their 
particular station or circuit. Their consciences are at 
ease when the salary of the preacher is not made up ; 
they have given their share, and are willing the preacher 
should go around, cap in hand, to collect the balance. 
When the preacher in charge says there should be an 
addition to the church building, or a new one, or a 
parsonage, they say it is well enough if he can raise 
the money. He goes ahead, becomes the architect, 
constructor, and builder, and at the end finds the cost 
far beyond the estimate and the means of the mem- 
bers. This debt weighs upon the church for years, 
preacher after preacher tries to pay it, travelling beg- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 273 

gars come to help, and in time at a great loss the debt 
may be paid; but the church has suffered in credit, in 
grace, and in numbers, for many are prevented from 
joining a debt-ridden, badly- managed society. The 
members feel no responsibility for the errors made ; the 
preacher was the cause of the trouble, and it was his 
duty to see the society through its embarrassments. 
Meanwhile the laymen are having a good time ; they 
sing, pray, and are free from personal censure. The 
church is governed by the ministry. 

Yet with all this indifference, ignorance, and want 
of appreciation (the result of defective training), the 
work done by the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
been marvellous. It is no new thing on the earth for 
a people to be useful, either as slaves work under an 
overseer or serfs for a master, or as renters of ground 
for its owner ; but in time they see their condition and 
revolt; the slaves and serfs demand freedom and the 
renters an interest in the ground they till. The Meth- 
odist laymen have not all been slumbering or living 
this life of indifference; with increasing intelligence 
and broader views of duty, they see the false position in 
which they have been so long placed, and they say to 
their rulers, " It is enough," and demand a change. 

The question then comes with great force : Can the 
Methodist Episcopal Church afford to lose the active 
services of a laity who under the past unfavorable con- 
ditions have done so much for its advancement? Can- 
not the ministry see that the laity would have done 
much more for Christ's cause if a proper responsibility 
had been placed on them, and if they had been intelli- 



274 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

gently and actively engaged in serving it for the last 
twenty or more years? Is the love of power in 
the ministers of the church greater than their love 
for their fellow-beings whom Christ died to save ? Is 
there any cause that can demand greater sacrifices of 
human ambition and desires on the part of the min- 
isters than the cause of Christ ? The grave question 
of lay representation in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church seems to depend on the answer to such ques- 
tions, — the ministers should answ T er them as in the 
sight of God ; if they will do this honestly and prayer- 
fully, the Spirit of God will help them to overcome 
their infirmities. 

It is more agreeable to write pleasant words than to 
expose error and wrong. To narrate wherein the laity 
may be made more useful to the church by their in- 
troduction, on an equality with the clergy, into all its 
councils would occupy more space than is available. 
Every member will see, almost instinctively, for he 
will at once compare what he has done with what he 
might have done. The first result would be a proper 
division of labor. 

In the early church it was found that deacons had 
to be appointed to take care of the poor, that the apos- 
tles and disciples might be free to go into all countries 
and preach the gospel of their Lord Jesus Christ. 
There is as much need to-day as ever there was that 
the ministry should be free from worldly cares and 
responsibilities. 

What nobler occupation is there for man than to be 
a faithful pastor of a loving people ; devoting his whole 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 275 

time to persuading men to be reconciled with God, 
teaching the young, watching over them, bringing them 
into the church, building up the saints; showing by 
his own example the beauty and influence of a Chris- 
tian life. These are the duties of a minister; in this 
service he reaps rich harvests and enjoys the happiness 
of knowing that he has done all that he could to make 
his fellow- men better and happier in this world, and to 
fit them for the enjoyment of an eternity of happiness 
in another state of existence. To be able to do this he 
must be relieved from anxiety as to a reasonable sup- 
port ; he must be freed from the care over church prop- 
erty, either in constructing, changing, or keeping it in 
repair; he must receive continued and hearty support 
from the laity in his endeavors to do work beyond the 
local church, whether such work is done by personal 
labors, by aid societies, or in other ways. Selfishness 
has no part in Christ's teachings; the best incentive to 
every minister is to be found in the words of the Master, 
" Freely ye have received, freely give." The second 
result of this division of labor would be that the laity 
would see that they have a work to do, that they must 
take charge of all the financial business of the church, 
must provide liberally for the support of its varied 
work ; for in proportion as a church is progressive and 
aggressive will be the opening of places of usefulness, 
and the demand for money and men. The laymen must 
meet these wants so far as they can. It is a well- 
observed fact that providential openings and demands 
for money and men are made just as rapidly as the men 
are raised up for the special duty, and the laity have 



276 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the ability and willingness to furnish the money to 
support them • when the progressive and aggressive 
spirit is at work, Providence will not let it fail for want 
of employment. It is idle to talk of awakening or 
arousing the laity to a full performance of their church 
duty unless the responsibility is clearly put upon them. 
If nature abhors a vacuum, man equally dislikes to 
work. It requires some stimulus to make men do their 
best ; they do not willingly assume places of responsi- 
bility ; they are always willing that others should do 
their work; but give them the incentive of a sacred 
duty and you may arouse a sleeping giant. 

This division of labor, when every member of the 
church, the ministers and laity, are engaged at the parts 
of the great machine which they best understand, will 
secure the most perfect unification of the work, a 
blending of effort to a common end. In addition to 
the better support that will be secured to the ministers, 
and the better care of their widows and orphans, there 
would be developments in the way of church erection 
and improvement of church property little dreamt 
of by the most hopeful. The disgrace of begging 
old men, on the verge of the grave, to give to the 
church property which belongs to their heirs will be 
abandoned. The mission work of the church at home 
and abroad would receive a great impetus. Our 
colleges and academies would be more liberally en- 
dowed and better supported. The publishing interest 
of the church would be put on a proper basis, and all 
needed charitable institutions established and judi- 
ciously supported. The young and active men in the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 277 

ministry will be freed from the efforts of their elders 
to make them humble, by keeping them down. The 
lists of the Conferences will be purged ; there will not 
be so many dead-weights and hangers-on for the sake of 
place. The church councils will be purified ; the seekers 
for office will be left at home; the church may lose 
some of its leaders, but the result will be that there 
will be an advance along the whole line, and in solid 
phalanx, shoulder to shoulder, the ministers and laymen 
will work to save fallen men. These results may not 
be at once secured ; it may take time to educate the 
laymen to make good use of their privileges and to fully 
recognize their responsibilities. It is hard to throw 
off old habits ; it takes time to educate the quondam 
slave to properly use his freedom, and the immigrant 
from foreign oppression to wisely use his rights and 
privileges as a citizen of the Republic. 

The next point is the influence the introduction of 
the laymen into the councils of the church will have 
on their religious character. The first results would be 
increased self-respect and a development of the ele- 
ments of manhood. No one holding a subordinate 
position can enjoy the feeling of independence of mind 
and action that comes with the responsibilities of life. 
The young wife and mother is a very different person 
from the girl in her father's house. The young man 
in charge of a business feels and acts very differently 
from what he did when a clerk or a subordinate part- 
ner. The enfranchised citizen has different thoughts 
and feelings from what he had when a slave or a serf. 
The right to deposit a vote, to be one of many to con- 

24 



278 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

trol the destinies of a nation, gives the young man very 
decided views of his responsibilities. When the laity 
feel that they are responsible to their Master for the 
management and working of their part of His church, 
they will then acquire a more intelligent understanding 
of its doctrines and of its form of government; they 
will learn to appreciate its peculiarities, and to know 
wherein its strength is to be found ; they will become 
jealous of its good name and kindly critics of its de- 
fects, and Avill have for it a strong and deep attach- 
ment. 

It will be said that these promised results partake 
of the character of hopeful anticipations without good 
grounds. It may be so, but if any such future is to 
come to the church at any time it must come in this 
way. The policy of suppression of the laity, with its 
results, has been partly described. The present state 
of inertia is its product. The members are alive to 
the interests of their individual societies ; they rarely 
think or go beyond them. 

The disfranchisement of the laity of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church — for this is the equivalent of the 
want of representation — has its injurious effects on the 
church in the lack of attachment to the church itself, 
as exhibited in the facility with which its members 
change their church relations, but more especially in 
the weak hold it has on the children of its members 
and young converts. Such attachment is largely due 
to home-training. If the parents have an intelligent 
love for the church, the children will inherit it. Dis- 
franchised citizens have but little sympathy or attach- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 279 

ment to their government; they and their children 
move into other countries and change their allegiance 
without a pang ; having had no political influence or 
responsibility, they have no love for their rulers. The 
change is the more readily made when the country to 
which they migrate recognizes their manhood by giving 
them their full rights and places on them the responsi- 
bilities of citizenship. The laws of human nature 
work equally in both cases. The enfranchisement of 
the laity will produce as marked results as when the 
immigrant leaves a country where he was but little 
more than a chattel for one that clothes him with 
the dignity of citizenship. The change develops men ; 
the new-made citizen will exert his best ability to 
justify the confidence thus bestowed on him. 

The first result, then, of such enfranchisement will 
be seen in less wandering away from the church, and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church will cease to be the 
great reservoir from which so many churches draw 
for their ministers and for their members. While the 
church is willing to furnish a godly ministry to churches 
that have not enough religious vitality to supply their 
own pulpits, yet it would be better for all to remain 
in our own fold, where they can be better protected and 
educated in a true religious life. The effect of the 
leaven of Methodistic training and customs is to be 
seen in the increased spirituality and activity in good 
works of the other churches. 

The second advantage will be that as the laity are 
brought to take more interest in the general church, to 
have a deeper interest in the spiritual welfare of their 



280 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

fellow-men, they will become more spiritually-minded, 
and be better men and women, with which graces will 
come enlarged influence for good in all the service of 
the church. 

It may not be amiss just here to illustrate the ability 
of the laity to work successfully in Christ's cause, and 
its influence on them by the operations of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Its history is known to all. The causes of 
its marvellous success are generally understood ; the 
hold it has on the people is so strong that the attempts 
in the last General Conference to secure its control by 
the Board of Missions failed through the decided ex- 
pression of the lay members of that Conference, with 
the aid of many ministerial delegates. The success of 
that society, which has so won its way into the heart 
of the church and to a disciplinary recognition, proved 
the ability of the women of the church to originate, 
to manage, and secure the needed support of such an 
organization without the controlling aid of the min- 
isters. It has been better managed, in many respects, 
than the General Board of Missions, and at the least 
possible expense. The women, with their intuitive 
knowledge and tact, have spread before their con- 
tributors, in the monthly visits of their admirable 
journal, the Heathen Woman's F? y iend, facts that give 
a clear understanding of the operations and expen- 
ditures of the society. While almost any intelligent 
member of the church can tell all about its missions 
and their success, it would be a rare thing to find any 
layman or woman who is as well posted in the work 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 281 

of the General Board. This illustration also proves the 
developing power of the responsibility thus assumed 
by the women, — a development in intelligence, wisdom, 
zeal, business aptitude, and, above all, in piety. The 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society will have the 
direct effect of keeping many men and women in, and 
increasing their love for the church. 

Again, there is a law of man's mental, moral, and 
religious nature that the ministers have not appreciated. 
It is found in the law of growth ; the use of the mus- 
cles is necessary to physical development, of the men- 
tal faculties to mental power, of moral perception to 
correct action, of activity in good works to religious 
experience. Then, too, these uses must not only be in 
the proper line, but to the extent of one's capacity. 
The laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church feel that 
the time has come when, as grown men and women, 
they should be charged with the weighty responsibility 
of aiding in carrying on the great work of the church. 
They feel that they are competent to understand, to 
appreciate its wants, and to legislate concerning them ; 
if this is refused and the intelligence and capacity of 
the laity are not employed, it is equivalent to saying 
that the Methodist Episcopal Church has no use for 
them, and bidding them go elsewhere for employment 
in Christ's vineyard. If this refusal is persisted in 
many must go, as many have in the past, — for to work 
is their duty, their life. The ministry should remem- 
ber that while such men and women can live without 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, that church cannot 
afford to drive them away from its fold. 

24* 



282 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

The true cause of the creation of the Woman's 
Home and Foreign Missionary Societies was this feel- 
ing by the women of the church, this sense of unrest 
because of their failure to be recognized or employed 
by the church in the line of missionary work, and to 
the extent of their capacity ; it was a protest against 
the narrow policy and organization of the Missionary 
Board. In this work they have outstripped the laymen 
and, to their honor, pointed the way to work indepen- 
dently of ministerial control. It is the first duty of the 
church to keep its members actively engaged in labor 
in the cause of Christ. The church that most fully 
complies with this law of its existence will be the most 
useful and the most prosperous. 

The influence of the form of government of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church on its members, in addi- 
tion to the fact noticed of its tendency to narrow their 
interest to the society with which they are immediately 
connected, is to be found in the absence, omission, or 
non-recognition of the laity in the public exercises of 
the church, in the anniversaries of its societies and 
boards, and in public meetings of the general church, — 
the ministers naturally appropriating such representa- 
tive places to themselves. These two exemplifications 
of the influence of priestly power on a people suggest 
very forcibly that there is an inherent defect in any 
organization that produces results that are contrary to 
all the accepted ideas of advance in the development 
of man, mentally and morally, and of the growth of 
the Christian Church. This fact was apparent at the 
recent centennial meetings. It might have been ex- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 283 

pected that such meetings would have been held with- 
out distinction between the ministers and the laity ; 
that for once, and on so grand an occasion, the min- 
isters would have dropped their leadership, and per- 
mitted a free expression by the laymen of their appre- 
ciation of the work done by Methodism in a hundred 
years. But caste is stronger than love of church, be- 
cause it blinds the believer in caste to the virtues and 
rights of others. This failure to recognize the laity 
was evident at the centennial meetings in Baltimore, 
in December, 1884, where, out of twenty-four chosen 
topical speakers, there was but one layman, and he 
from the Church South, and of sixty-two platform 
speakers but eight laymen, the remaining seventy- 
seven being ministers in the various Methodist bodies. 

How very remarkable this was will be better appre- 
ciated when the statement is made that Methodism in- 
cludes nearly four millions of members and but some 
twenty thousand ministers, and that out of these mill- 
ions of members but nine, or about one in some four 
hundred and forty thousand, were considered worthy 
of a place on the platform, or competent to point out 
the great achievements of the church in the past hun- 
dred years. As a result of this want of recognition, 
of this failure to make the laity bear their part of the 
remembrance, the contributions have failed to reach the 
desired and expected amounts. The heart of the laity 
was not in it. 

There is another equally important thought connected 
with the influence of the polity of the church on the 
work of the laymen ; it is found in their failure to bear 



284 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

their part of the public burdens of benevolence and 
influence that belong to all Christians. Christ has 
opened to His followers, for their profitable employ- 
ment, many other kinds of service than those which pe- 
culiarly belong to individual churches or denominations. 
Many of these ways of doing good require the union 
of Christian laborers; they rise above the specialties 
of denominational interests to the level of a broad 
Christianity. In such work the Methodist and Catho- 
lic rarely appear, and when they are present, they have 
but little influence. The broad Catholicism of the other 
Protestant Churches, and more especially those of the 
Presbyterian family, approves itself to the public mind, 
and gives them and their ministers an influence which 
cannot be reached by prolongation of term of service 
or such like remedies. It is said, in excuse for the 
failure of the Methodist laity to engage in such union 
of efforts, that they are engaged in their special church 
duties, and have not time for other religious employ- 
ment ; that other churches do not furnish so much work 
for their people, and, as they are fewer in numbers, they 
must join with others that they may have employment. 
There is some truth in these statements, but not enough 
to account for the shrinking and hesitation that Meth- 
odists show when invited to join others in religious 
labors of public interest. 

The true reason for such failure to unite in the 
broader Christian work of the country is to be found 
in the fact that the Methodist people, like the Catholic, 
are educated to rely for everything in the way of leader- 
ship, or appearance in public, on their pastors. This 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 285 

failure of the Methodist laity to bear the full share of 
their religious duties to the public hinders their growth 
and the usefulness of the church. Methodist teaching 
and usages have not had a fair chance of making a 
proper impression on the members of other churches, 
or upon the public mind; its usefulness has been limited, 
and it has lost the benefits that would accrue to its 
members by their coming in contact with other Chris- 
tians, and working in lines and ways outside of the 
regular church demands. This failure to bear their 
proper share of the public burdens has the effect of 
narrowing the minds of our members, and of lessening 
their knowledge of and interest in the general con- 
dition of humanity around them. The influence of a 
proper system of church government is seen in the 
greater freedom, already noticed, of the members of the 
Presbyterian family in engaging in all public move- 
ments for bettering the condition of humanity, in their 
liberty in expressing their opinions on all moral ques- 
tions that may be before the public, and in all meas- 
ures to sustain the majesty of the law, and to secure 
good rulers and magistrates. All this is the result of 
educating the individual to feel that he is an integral 
part of the Church of God, that he is responsible for its 
management, and must bear his share in all the duties 
of a Christian life. The equality of the teachers and 
rulers and members of the church, and the equality of 
their responsibility to God, is a noble basis for a Chris- 
tian church. It is to be hoped that the members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church may compare the re- 
sults of its present polity with that of the Presbyterian 



286 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

Churches, and see, in the comparison, good reason for 
a change. 

That the result of these proposed changes in the 
polity of the church will be a spiritual benefit to the 
church as a body, to the ministry, and to the member- 
ship cannot be doubted. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 287 



CHAPTER VII. 

Status of the clerical and lay members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church on the question of increased lay representation. 

In the inauguration of any movement in the direc- 
tion of an increased representation of the laity in the 
General Conference and their introduction into the 
Annual Conferences, it will be well to analyze the 
position of the ministry and of the laity on these 
propositions. 

First : The ministry. While the term " ministers" 
has been frequently used in this paper, it is expressly 
desired that it shall not be construed as intended to 
embrace all the ministers in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Nor can the opinions, desires, and intentions 
herein attributed to the laity be claimed as any more 
comprehensive. General terms have sometimes to be em- 
ployed. It is acknowledged with thankfulness that the 
early ministers, who laid the foundation of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church broad and deep, were character- 
ized by an almost romantic energy, self-denial, zeal, 
and earnestness, by great wisdom, religious fervor, and 
piety ; and it does not derogate from their character and 
other virtues to say that among the ministry of to-day 
will be found their equals in all respects. Our hon- 
ored fathers had their peculiar temptations arising from 



288 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

their relations to the church ; the present race of min- 
isters have other temptations as peculiar to them and 
to their relations to the church. It is also again stated 
that in no way has it been intended, in this essay, to 
cast odium upon any minister or the ministry, nor to 
question the sincerity of their motives. They have a 
right to express their opinions upon the church govern- 
ment, and to be respected therein, though others, as 
deeply devoted to the interests of the church, may 
think very differently, and see in the opinions of their 
brethren the seeds of danger to the church. 

With these observations, the analysis of the position 
of the ministry on the question of lay representation 
shows, First: That there are many who thoroughly 
believe in giving the laymen full and equal represen- 
tation in all the councils of the church, not only as 
a right, but as a wise and prudent policy. Their inti- 
mate relations with the laity have given them confi- 
dence in their piety, knowledge, and wisdom. They 
recognize the fact that the governments of nations and 
of the church are coming into the hands of the many. 
Second: That there are many who are indifferent to 
the question of lay representation, and are willing to 
accept any result. Third: Others, again, see no im- 
mediate reason for any change ; they are submissive in 
spirit, yet would prefer the church to go on as it was 
when they were received into the fold. Fourth : There 
are those who are so conservative that any change is, 
in their opinion, questionable; they urge the let 
alone policy. If the world had depended on this 
sort of men, it would to-day be in the depths of 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. ■ 289 

barbarism. Fifth: There are others who, while un- 
favorable to the introduction of the laity, yet will not 
seriously oppose it because they consider it inevitable, 
and rather than see the church deeply agitated will 
yield the point. 

These five classes comprise the great majority of the 
ministry, but there are three other classes. 

The Sixth, while they believe the introduction of 
laymen is inevitable, yet will oppose it as long as pos- 
sible, for the two reasons that they (the ministry) may 
have a longer lease of power and make the better bar- 
gain for themselves when the time of yielding comes. 
This class favor committees to examine and report at 
another General Conference, and approve all sugges- 
tions of delay. 

The Seventh class are filled with the belief, as quoted 
by Macaulay, that, " while man made the House of 
Commons, yet God made the House of Lords," and 
that they are of this latter house, being divinely ap- 
pointed to rule over God's church ; that therefore any 
attempt to introduce the laity, and especially with power 
to judge of God's elect, would be scripturally wrong. 
These brethren abhor the idea of applying the prin- 
ciples of liberal governments to the church, and in 
this they have the example of many good men in the 
Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran Churches. The 
doctrine of their equality before God with the laity, 
they argue, applies to personal, not to church relations. 
They point to the success of the state churches of 
Europe and to the past history of Episcopal Methodism 
as illustrations of the necessity, for the success of a 
n t 25 



290 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

church, of there being absolute or largely controlling 
power in its ministry.. These parties will fight the 
question to the bitter end; they, like the Bourbons, 
never learn. 

The Eighth class sympathize with the latter brethren 
as to the necessity of such changes in the organic law 
of the church as will enable the members of an An- 
nual Conference to control the personnel of its mem- 
bership and in some way to control the appointments. 
To produce these results they keep clearly and distinctly 
in view, and as necessary steps, the lowering of the 
power of the bishops in the choice of the presiding 
elders, believing that, with these and some other organic 
changes, the power, the influence, and the position of 
the ministers will be increased. 

The danger to the church at large comes from the 
three last-named classes, with the acquiescence of the 
fifth class. Eebellions and revolutions are rarely the 
spontaneous acts of a majority of a people ; it is the 
sudden decided stand taken by the few who make an 
opinion for the public and precipitate rebellion. With 
such a variety of sentiment on this subject as thus 
stated among the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, a few determined men can generally succeed 
in controlling the action of the majority. 

Second : The laity. It may be profitable to ana- 
lyze the position of the laity on this question. And, 
first of all, it may be said that wherever a people have 
from the origin of their nation or government been 
under an absolute rule, there has grown up with it a 
submissive spirit; any effort at change will be frowned 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 291 

down by the conservative among them. Such a people 
urge that " it is better to bear the ills they have than 
to fly to others they know not of," and through an edu- 
cation of years, they learn to accept their condition as 
from their Creator. They are trained to look to their 
rulers as their protectors, and to depend on them for 
advice and guidance in all the matters of life, and as 
to assuming any share of the responsibility of govern- 
ment they would hesitate, and rebellion would be re- 
sistance of God's holy appointed rulers. The same 
facts are true as to the influence of despotic churches. 
What Catholic would rise against the power of his 
church, against the Pope? or what Greek Christian 
against the power of the Czar, or Episcopalian against 
an edict of a Convention, or Methodist against the will 
of his minister? However, in time, with education, 
observation, and a knowledge of the way other people 
around them thrive and progress under self-rule, they 
make a first effort for freedom. It may fail or be 
partially successful, from the opposition of the laws of 
habit and training, of the powers of conservatism and 
the influence of their rulers ; but when such a people 
appreciate their strength and the importance of the 
object to be gained, and make a united, determined 
effort, then their demands will be granted. This 
sketch of every year's history of the world presents a 
fair picture of the position of the laity of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, with the same variety of parties, 
the same cast of characters which marks worldly ex- 
amples. 

There are many of the laymen who do not feel they 



292 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

are ruled or oppressed because they have known noth- 
ing else. There are many who willingly avoid respon- 
sibilities ; there are many who believe that their position 
in the church government should be changed, but fear 
lest agitation might do harm to the cause. There are 
many who sympathize deeply with the friends of lay 
representation, but feel they can do nothing to help it on. 
Again, there are many members who were disappointed 
that no favorable action was taken by the last General 
Conference. They feel there is no hope in waiting on 
the good sense of the ministry to act without pressure. 
They are now prepared to unite to educate, to gather 
in and crystallize the sentiment of the church, that the 
ministers may hereafter make no question as to their 
opinion or demand. The laity remember with great 
pleasure the labors of the worthy men, ministers and 
laymen, who for so many years gave their time and 
expended their money to educate the people up to the 
point that was gained in 1872, — the introduction of 
two lay representatives from each Annual Conference 
into the General Conference. Let the laity, with the 
aid of the broad-minded men in the ministry, again 
unite and a greater advance will be made. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 293 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The laws of other churches respecting lay representation. 

It will be a matter of interest to the laity of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church to be reminded of the way 
other churches treat their members. The following 
memorandum has been prepared for this purpose. An 
examination of the polity of the different churches dis- 
closes several important facts. 

First : That in proportion as the churches are influ- 
enced by an inherited claim or relation to civil power, 
so is the power given to the ministry, and the converse, 
that as the churches are free from such influences so are 
the laity admitted to share in legislation. It will also 
be noticed that in all the churches except the Primitive 
Methodists of England and Ireland, and the Friends, 
the leaning is on the side of giving the advantage in 
representation to the ministry, evidently for the reason 
that the fact of a man being ordained as a minister 
gives him a right, per se, which the laymen has not, to 
legislate in the church councils. It is a relict of the 
claims of the ministers to govern the church that still 
lingers in the most democratic church governments. 

Second : That the churches that most thoroughly 
ignore and exclude the laity from any participation in 
25* 



294 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

its government are the Roman Catholic and Greek 
Churches, the Church of England, and the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. This is a strange and unnatural 
union of names, and what is more to the point, and 
shows that something is defective in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, is that the exclusive, aristocratic 
Church of England, with all its prelatical assumption 
of superiority, has been so impressed with the necessity 
of introducing its laymen into its councils, that its 
work as a church may be better done, that to secure 
this object the " Convocation" of Canterbury con- 
cluded, at its session in 1884, to form a "House 
of Laymen," the laymen to be appointed by the Dio- 
cesan Conferences of the province. Apropos of this, 
the last General Conference refused to permit lay- 
men to be members of an Annual Conference, or to 
enlarge the number of lay representatives in the Gen- 
eral Conference. How different the spirit and the in- 
telligence which, under all its legal embarrassments, 
led the Church of England, apart from other reasons, 
to recognize the necessity of the presence of its laymen, 
that " its \v T ork as a church might be better done," with 
the narrow jealousy and petty action of the last Gen- 
eral Conference in refusing the fullest use of the laity ! 
The Methodist Episcopal Church has not the reasons 
for its unfortunate position that the Catholic Churches 
and the Church of England have for the power of 
the clergy and the ignoring of the laity. The Roman, 
Greek, and the English Churches constitute part of a 
government of which the Pope, the Czar, and the 
Queen of England are the heads. There may be some 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 295 

defence for these churches ; there can be none for the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Thied : The representative men of all the Protestant 
Churches recognize their lay members as conservative 
in their church action and policy. The Southern 
Methodist Episcopal Church, with the same general 
characteristics of doctrine and polity, acknowledges the 
advantage resulting from the presence of an equal num- 
ber of lay and clerical members in their General Con- 
ferences, and an influential representation of laymen in 
their Annual Conferences. Their experience should be 
conclusive as to the proper policy of the. church North, 
for they met the same practical difficulties in carrying 
out the plan that would be found in the Northern 
church. 

MEMORANDUM. 

Presbyterian Church. — Each church is governed by 
its session, consisting of the pastor and ruling elders 
elected by the members. Presbyteries are composed 
of the teaching elders of the churches in a given geo- 
graphical district, together with one of the ruling 
elders elected for that purpose by the session from each 
church. Its duties are to inspect the personal conduct 
and pastoral labors of every minister within its bounds, 
and, when necessary, to admonish, suspend, or depose. 
It grants licenses to preach, gives certificates of char- 
acter to those removing, and furnishes supplies. 

The Synod is composed of the teaching elders and 
one ruling elder from each church of a larger district. 
The General Assembly, the supreme authority in ec- 



296 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

clesiastical matters, embraces representatives, lay and 
clerical, in equal numbers. Voting is done en masse. 

Protestant Episcopal Church. — Diocesan Conventions 
are composed of the clerical members of the diocese 
and of lay representatives from the churches. 

Each parish is composed of a rector, vestry, and con- 
gregation. The vestries are elected by the congregation. 

The General Convention is composed of two houses, 
— one of the bishops and the other of clerical and lay 
representatives chosen by the Diocesan Convention. 

In all questions, when required by the clerical or lay 
representatives from any diocese, each order has one 
vote, and the majority of suffrages by dioceses is to be 
conclusive in each order, provided such majority com- 
prehends a majority of the dioceses represented in that 
order. 

Bishops are tried by a court of bishops. Ministers 
are received, tried, suspended, or dismissed by vote of 
the Standing Committee of each diocese, which is com- 
posed of the bishop, five clergymen, and five laymen. 
Bishops only can pronounce sentence on any clergyman, 
whether bishop, presbyter, or deacon. 

Reformed Episcopal CJiurch. — The form of govern- 
ment of this church differs from that of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church more in name than in fact, and in 
some respects it recognizes the equality of the laity 
more fully than the latter. 

The Baptist Churches are independent; each one 
adopts its own articles of religion and form of govern- 
ment. Between the clergy and laity they recognize no 
other distinction than office. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 297 

German Reformed. — The government is Presbyterian. 
The elders and deacons are chosen by the members to 
form a Consistory. The Classis consists of ministers 
and one elder from each parish ; it has charge of re- 
ception and trial of ministers. General Synod, the 
highest body, consists of ministers and elders chosen 
by the Classes. 

Reformed Dutch. — Resembles the German Reformed 
in the principal features of government. 

Church of God. — Supreme legislative body is, in its 
general council, " composed of the preachers in charge 
and the elders and deacons of each church, all of whom 
are elected by the elders." 

Lutheran. — The Synods are made up of a minister 
and layman from each church. The lay representatives 
are elected by the council of the church, which is elected 
by the members. In the admission and trial of minis- 
ters the clergy and laity are on an equality. 

Methodist Episcopal Chw*ch, South. — Annual Con- 
ferences are composed of travelling ministers and lay 
delegates, four of the latter (one of whom may be a 
local preacher) from every district. 

The General Conference is composed of equal num- 
bers of ministers and laymen. 

Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, South. — Has 
the same general organization as the Southern Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, with but one layman (one of 
whom may be a local preacher) from each district in 
the Annual Conference. 

African Methodist Episcopal Church. — Provides for 
two lay representatives from each Annual Conference 



298 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

in the General Conference. The members composing 
the lay convention are chosen by vote of all the mem- 
bers of a district, voting en masse. 

Friends. — There being no ordained ministers, the 
government is altogether in the hands of the members, 
male and female. 

Moravian Brethren. — The American provincial 
Synod is composed of all ordained ministers and of lay 
delegates elected by the churches, and meets trien- 
nial ly. 

Roman Catholic Church. — The power of government 
and of the purse are absolutely and exclusively in the 
hands of the clergy. 

Church of England. — With the queen as its head, 
the management is in the hands of the state. The 
Convocation, a body to discuss church affairs, consists 
of two bodies, the one composed of archbishops and 
bishops, the other of representative clergymen chosen 
by the clergymen of each diocese. 

Wesleyan Church. — -The Conference, the legal hun- 
dred, is the highest legislative body. It consists of one 
hundred ministers, as provided for by Mr. Wesley in 
his Deed of Declaration of 1784, and by it this body 
was made perpetual. 

In 1878 laymen were admitted to participate in all 
its proceedings except those affecting the ministerial 
office. The " Mixed Conference," so called, consists 
of an equal number of laymen and ministers. 

New Connection Methodists. — The Conference is con- 
stituted on the representative system, — one layman and 
one minister from each church. Ministers are admitted 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 299 

and tried by both orders. Laymen have an equal 
voice with the clergy in the government of the church. 

Primitive Methodists. — Their Conference is composed 
of one-third preachers and two-thirds laymen. 

The Methodist Church of Canada. — Has equal rep- 
resentation in its councils. The lay members have no 
vote on ministerial character or on the admission of 
members to an Annual Conference. 

Primitive Methodists of Ireland. — Ministers rank as 
laymen. 

Australian Methodists. — Ministers and laymen unite 
in conducting the Annual Conference. 

The Scotch Churches. — Are governed on the same 
principles as the Presbyterian Churches in the United 
States. 



300 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 



CHAPTER IX. 

Kesume of the changes that are required in the organization and 
polity of the Methodist Episcopal Church to suit the present 
conditions that surround and affect its usefulness. 

The important question which now comes before 
the ministers and the members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is whether the time has not now come 
when its organization should be placed on a broader 
basis, in harmony with the teachings of Christ, the 
practices of the early church, and with the prevailing 
policy of the churches, both of this country and of 
England. A conscientious effort has been made plainly 
to show wherein the efficiency of the church may be 
injuriously affected, by a loss of its spiritual power, by 
the dangers that accompany marked success, by becom- 
ing a prey to political intrigue, by the ambition of its 
ministry to perpetuate their power in the church, by the 
ruinous tendency to the secularization of the ministry, 
and by the temptations peculiar to them as a class. 

The preceding analysis has shown that the best re- 
sults of church work are found in an union of respon- 
sibility and a wise division of labor; that the intro- 
duction of the laity into the councils of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church will tend to lessen the dangers that 
threaten its prosperity, and will give such councils in- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 3Q1 

creased wisdom and stability, will inspire the members 
with renewed zeal in the cause of Christ, and will react 
most favorably on the Christian character of the min- 
istry and laity. 

It has been acknowledged that the progress of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church has been so marked as to 
show, beyond doubt, that its organization was adapted to 
the spiritual wants, and to many of the conditions of the 
people of this country at an early date, and that it has 
been an instrument largely used by the Holy Spirit in 
the conversion of men. In the partial analysis made 
of the causes of such progress, its doctrines, methods, 
and organization were commented on, and the preser- 
vation of the itinerancy insisted upon, as being the best 
means of reaching with the gospel the largest number 
of people; of giving them the highest average of ser- 
vice ; of securing the more regular employment and 
the better support of its ministry ; of developing their 
abilities ; of opening the widest field for their personal 
and pulpit influence ; of aiding them in godly living ; 
and of building up the general church of Jesus Christ. 

BASIS OF ARGUMENT. 

The controlling principles which influenced this in- 
vestigation of the polity of the church and determined 
its conclusions were : 

First: The assumption that the whole membership, 
including the ministry, is answerable to God for the use 
of the trust given them in the form of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

Secondly : That this responsibility is measured by its 
26 



302 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

present conditions and future possibilities, and that the 
members cannot avoid this responsibility by continuing 
to depute such care to the ministry. 

It is their personal duty to secure this proper care 
of the church in the most practicable way, and with the 
least friction in disturbing existing habits and usages. 

Thirdly : That the ultimate test of any and all pro- 
posed changes in the polity of the church should be 
their influence on its efficiency. 

The changes in its organization suggested in this 
paper to carry out such principles are based on four 
other principles which are practicable and protective 
in their nature : 

First : Equal representation and equal powers of the 
ministry and the laity in the two councils of the church, 
— the General and Annual Conferences. 

Second : That the representation of the itinerant min- 
istry in the General Conference should be confined to 
the effective itinerant men. 

Third : That membership in an Annual Conference, 
on the clerical side, should be limited to the effective 
travelling ministry. 

Fourth : That the ministers should be aided by all 
the conditions that will enable them to do the best 
work, and be protected from the presence of induce- 
ments which tempt them to give up the active ministry 
or lead them into secular pursuits. 

That the proposed changes may be fully considered 
by the church it is asked that they be tried by answers 
to the following leading questions, — many others will 
surest themselves to the reader : 

so 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 303 

First : What influence would these proposed changes 
in the polity of the church have on the work of the 
itinerancy, the attachment of the ministry and mem- 
bership, and on its efficiency? 

Second : Would not the efficiency of the church be 
increased by recognizing the truth, " That the member- 
ship of the church is entitled, either collectively in the 
persons of its members, or representatively, by persons 
chosen out of or by the laity, to a voice or influence in 
all the acts of legislation and government ?" (Principles, 
New Connection.) 

The changes suggested come under their respective 
headings, and are as follows : 

FOE THE GENERAL CONFERENCE. 

I. To provide that the General Conference shall be 
composed of equal numbers of lay and clerical dele- 
gates, chosen as may be provided by the Discipline. 

II. That the basis of representation of both orders 
should be the numbers of the members, and in case 
where the members of an Annual Conference are not 
equal to the number required for the election of two 
delegates (one clerical and one lay), then the members 
of adjoining Conferences may be united to secure such 
representation. 

III. That the representation should be confined, on 
the clerical side, to effective ministers attached to An- 
nual Conferences engaged in the travelling ministry, 
including presiding elders, ministers in charge of sta- 
tions, circuits, and missions, and presidents and pro- 
fessors of the theological schools, universities, colleges, 



304 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

and schools under the care of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and secretaries of the American and State 
Bible Societies when Methodist preachers. 

IV. That no minister acting as a representative in a 
General Conference should be eligible to the office of 
bishop, nor to any of the official positions which are 
filled by election by such Conference. 

V. That the clerical and lay members shall have an 
equal right to call for a vote by orders, or to sit apart 
in the discussion of any question before taking a vote, 
a majority of both orders being required to carry a 
measure when a separate vote is takeu. 

VI. That in the election of the bishops, and of 
all other officials, a separate vote shall be taken by 
orders, or, in other words, it shall require a majority 
of both orders, clerical and lay, voting separately and 
apart, to elect a bishop or any person to any official 
place. 

VII. In place of the last two articles, preference 
should be given to the recommendation that provision 
should be made for the creation of two bodies in the 
General Conference, the one composed of the clerical, 
the other of the lay, delegates, that all acts of the 
Conference should require the assent of a majority of 
both houses ; that the choice of bishops should be pro- 
tected by requiring a vote of more than only a majority 
of both houses; that other officials might be elected 
by a simple majority. 

VIII. The General Conference should meet but 
once in six years. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 305 

FOR THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 

I. To provide for either equal (clerical and lay) rep- 
resentation or, if more convenient and practicable, for 
not less than six lay representatives from each district 
in each Annual Conference. 

II. That the ministerial membership of the Annual 
Conferences shall be confined to the presiding elders 
and the ministers in charge of circuits and stations; 
presidents and professors in the theological schools, 
universities, colleges, and schools under the care of the 
church, secretaries of the church boards, clerical editors 
of the church newspapers and reviews, and secretaries 
of the American or State Bible Societies. That the 
preachers holding superannuated or supernumerary 
relations, or appointments other than as above specified, 
may be members of an Annual Conference, without 
right to vote, or to be delegates to a General Confer- 
ence, until such time when the General Conference 
shall provide that membership in the Annual Con- 
ferences shall be confined, as originally designed, to the 
active ministry, all other ministers holding their rela- 
tion to the church at large, and amenable for their 
conduct to the Annual Conference in whose bounds 
they reside. 

III. That the clerical and lay members shall have 
the same right to a separate vote, and shall be governed 
in all respects by the same powers as in the General 
Conference, except that they shall meet as one body. 

IV. That both orders shall have equal authority to 
perform all duties committed to the Annual Confer- 

u 26* 



306 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

ence, such as the admission of men into the ministry, 
the trial and suspension or expulsion of a minister, the 
granting and fixing of superannuated, supernumerary, 
or local relations, with or without the consent of the 
persons so affected. 

CHANGES IN THE RESTRICTIVE RULES. 

I. To provide that all changes in the " Restrictive 
Rules" shall require the assent of three-fourths of the 
clerical and lay members voting separately in the An- 
nual Conferences, to be followed by two-thirds of the 
same orders voting separately in the General Con- 
ference. 

QUARTERLY CONFERENCE. 

I. That the Quarterly Conference shall consist of a 
fixed number of members of a station or circuit, to be 
chosen by the members of the church every two, three, 
or four years, or a certain portion every year, and 
shall be charged generally with the performance of 
the duties now assigned to that body. 

ELECTORAL COLLEGE. 

I. That the delegates to the lay convention shall be 
elected by the members of each station or circuit in 
such way and at such times as may be determined. 

GENERAL CONFERENCE BOARDS AND SOCIETIES. 

The principle of equality in representation between 
the ministry and laity to be introduced into all parts 
of the management of the different boards of the 
charitable societies of the church. The secretaries 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 307 

to be elected by the boards of managers of each in- 
terest. 

The changes as to the publishing interests and the 
colored membership being mixed questions of polity 
and policy, may be safely left to the discretion of the 
General Conference when composed of an equal num- 
ber of lay and clerical representatives. 

The following suggestions embrace the results of the 
discussion of these questions : 

THE PUBLISHING INTERESTS. 

That the policy of the church as to the extent of 
its publishing interests should be determined by three 
principles, — First: The propriety and duty of the 
church to provide for its people the Bible and the 
literature needed to explain and enforce its teachings. 
Second: That the extent of such service should be 
limited or measured by the willingness or ability of 
private enterprise to supply the same. Third: That 
there should be a constant effort made to keep down 
the capital employed and the real estate held by, and the 
number of agents and employes of, the Book Concerns. 

The committee appointed to look after these interests 
should consist of three-fourths laymen and one-fourth 
ministers, and be authorized to elect the editors of the 
papers, the reviews, and the Book Agents in New York 
and Cincinnati. 

THE COLORED CONFERENCES. 

The setting apart of the colored members of the 
church into an independent organization will be wise 



308 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

and prudent, because, First: It will be for their re- 
ligious and moral benefit, and, Second: It will remove 
a temptation to white church politicians to misuse and 
abuse their confidence. Third: It will increase the 
average intelligence of our General Conferences. 
Fourth : It will add to the stability of the church by 
lessening the ability to change imprudently the " Re- 
strictive Rules." Fifth: It will be but anticipating 
the inevitable. An absolute separation will be better 
than a gradual falling off of the better class of the 
colored people. 

With a further suggestion, that until such separation 
takes place all the Annual Conferences, composed 
wholly of colored ministers or of some fixed propor- 
tion of mixed colors, shall be made Mission Confer- 
ences with or without right of representation, but 
without the right to vote. 

The changes herein recommended, it will be observed, 
affect only the polity of the church. Are they not 
based on sound principles? Will they not tend to 
protect the church against the temptation now felt by 
the ministry, to abuse their power, by dividing such 
power with the laity ? In place of the tendency in the 
ministry to form a class interest, will not such changes 
secure the more perfect union of the ministry and the 
laity in the work of the church ? Will not the division 
of labor between them be a benefit physically and spir- 
itually to the ministers, and spiritually to the laymen? 
Will they not tend to lessen the temptations that now 
have so much influence on the ministers, leading them 
to become dissatisfied with the itinerancy of the church, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 309 

ambitious for place and honor, and seekers for place, 
drawing them into a condition of mind where they 
become a prey to the more skilful handlers of men, 
and thereby lose their peace of mind and usefulness? 
Will not such changes develop legislative and executive 
talent in the laity, the men and women of the church ? 
Does not the success of the Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society give promise of coming results when 
the responsibility of caring for the charities of the 
church is fully placed upon the laity ? 

Finally, will not the influence of such changes as 
are herein proposed in the polity of the church tend 
to more fully develop the itinerancy, in its best direc- 
tions, to increase the love and zeal of the ministers and 
laymen, and, by these and other results, greatly in- 
crease the efficiency of the Methodist Episcopal Church ? 

HARMONY. 

In the minds of many the questions will be suggested, 
AVhat effect will an effort to secure these changes have 
on the harmony of the church ? Will it in any way 
tend to create disturbance, divisions, unkind and un- 
christian feeling? Will such an effort, even for a time, 
thwart the work of grace or impede its growth and 
usefulness ? These are important questions, and merit a 
candid answer. It is acknowledged that all reforms 
create some friction. It is the will of the Creator of all 
things that by means of storms, with their destructive 
effects, nature may find in the desired equilibrium, peace. 
Just wars may exist, with their loss of life and prop- 



310 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

erty, to settle contests between great principles, and 
thereby produce more lasting peace and increased 
prosperity. The responsibility is with those who stand 
in the way of the liberalization of governments. 
Habits and customs in church government, as well as 
in state and in social life, resist changes. An extreme 
conservatism, for fear that one change may beget an- 
other, retards progress ; violent or radical changes in 
governments require strong efforts, and take time for a 
people to adapt themselves thereto. In the present 
case there should be no violent disturbances or dis- 
agreements. The proposed changes are not radical, 
because they are in the line of the development of the 
constitutions of all governments both of church and 
state, and they harmonize with the prevailing thought 
of the American people. The tendencies of legislation 
in the church are in that direction ; the critical point 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church w T as passed in 1872, 
in the admission of lay representatives to the General 
Conference. The presence of the laity on committees 
in the Annual Conferences has been a preparatory step. 
Such changes would be a natural outgrowth of the 
church towards greater usefulness, — a recognition of a 
necessity to keep pace with the demands of the cause. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church, in taking this long 
step forward, would be brought up to the level of the 
other Protestant Churches by a recognition of the rights 
of nearly two millions of her people. 

In the face of such results, who would create trouble 
in the church? Who would be the disunionist? Who 
would hinder the work of grace, or impede the growth 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 31 1 

and usefulness of Methodism? It would not be the 
laymen. 

It is hoped that these pages will be of service to those 
in the ministry who in all good conscience have been led 
astray in their judgment, by opening their eyes to the 
existence of facts and dangers they may not have seen. 
To the younger and abler men in the ministry it opens 
a way by which they may escape from the humiliating 
process of being kept down and hampered in their use- 
fulness to make way for unacceptable men who demand 
the best places. To the active ministers it secures the 
honors as well as the burdens, and places them on a 
higher platform, by recognizing, as the sainted Ly brand 
did in declining office, that the work of the pastor was 
the highest on earth. To many of the ministry who 
are fast going down towards that dread level of un- 
acceptability, the proposed changes offer the full bene- 
fits of the policy of transfers which will add years to 
their usefulness. To all the ministry these changes 
offer greater influence in the church, better care of 
themselves and families, and relief from worldly anxie- 
ties. 

The arguments and recommendations in the fore- 
going pages are submitted to the ministry and laity for 
their examination and concluding judgment. They 
are believed to be in the line of true progress, and are 
protective of all interests. The abiding desire has been 
to suggest such changes as will tend, First : To keep 
the church close to her spiritual work. Second : To 
keep the ministry free from the temptations of the 
world, the flesh, and the devil. Third : To develop 



312 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS IN THE 

the laity by placing upon them their full share of the 
work of the church. 

It may and probably will be that all the sugges- 
tions may not receive approval : some may think that 
while these may be good in themselves, yet that it is 
best to make haste slowly, to take one step at a time ; 
that the securing equal representation in the General 
Conference and satisfactory representation in the An- 
nual Conferences will suffice for the first step; that 
the other suggestions may be acted upon as stronger 
indications of clanger to the church may appear from 
any source. This course may be prudent. But this 
exposition shows the. necessity of the first step. Let 
that be taken. How can it be secured? Let not 
the laity flinch from looking the question in the face 
and meeting the facts. The analysis hereinbefore 
given of the position of both orders, clerical and lay, 
on this question is a fair exposition of the difficul- 
ties the laity will meet. Every thoughtful member 
will see that the attention of the laymen must be thor- 
oughly aroused to appreciate the justice and importance 
of securing proper representation in the church councils. 

The duty of all those in either the clerical or lay ranks, 
who believe in the necessity of some changes, is to agi- 
tate the question of lay representation. Agitation is a 
necessity in securing any great reform ; a grand neces- 
sity in all struggles with power. It is not revolution- 
ary, but conservative. Let such members who believe 
in the laity talk with their fellow-members about it ; 
let them examine it, analyze it, try it in every shape ; 
argue on the merits of the proposed changes for the 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 313 

good they will effect, and for the dangers they will 
prevent to the most cherished interests of the church, 
and as the best provision against the tyrannical use of 
the "power to command." Let there be consultation 
and comparison of views in groups of the laymen. Let 
the laity hold church meetings, circuit meetings, district 
meetings, meetings at Annual Conferences, Church 
Congresses, to discuss this question of representation. 
Let the lay conventions of 1887 and 1888 express them- 
selves strongly, and see to it that no one is elected to 
the next General Conference who will not support such 
changes. Let there be a representative mass-meeting 
held in New York City, in May, 1888, to express to 
the General Conference the judgment of the church, as 
to the necessity of such changes. There will then be 
no miserable quibbles about the wishes of the laity, and 
no more committees appointed. Let the laymen, with 
the more intelligent of the ministry who sympathize 
with them, prepare proper papers covering the changes 
they deem best for the church and cause, and demand 
their passage by the General Conference and in time by 
the Annual Conferences. The result may be surely fore- 
seen. The policy of right, of justice, of equality, of 
prudence, of wisdom, of religion, will be successful, 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church will, free from 
the tutelage of the schoolmasters, enter upon the work 
of its manhood. 

While the criticisms and suggestions herein made 

have had a more direct application to the present and 

near future interests of the church, yet in a broader 

sense they are as strongly directed to the prosperity 

o 27 



314 PEOPLE AND PREACHERS. 

of the church in that farther future which is loom- 
ing up before the thoughtful; for that time when 
the church shall become so large in numbers, and so ex- 
tended and varied in her interests, as to have grown 
beyond the adaptability of the present machinery of its 
organization. Such a time is in the future; it may 
be forty, fifty, or more years before it comes. The 
nearer it is (and the time of its coming will depend 
on the faithfulness of its members, lay and clerical), 
the more necessity is there for preparing the constitu- 
ency of the church to meet their future responsibilities, 
by now broadening the basis of the polity of the church, 
through the introduction of equal lay representation 
in all its councils and Conferences. If this is done, 
eternity alone can write the history of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, or tell of its usefulness as one of 
the means used by the great Head of the church to save 
fallen men. 



THE END. 



